Remnants of an Ancient Code
by Twisted Fate MK 2
Summary: Jaune Arc is a simple person, mainly wanting not to be eaten by Grimm when his father finally agrees to take him out on a patrol. That almost happens, and then he finds himself trapped in an ancient temple, unable to leave until 'Instructor' teaches him something he needs to get out of the mountain. Through that, he will find the Force. And the Force shall set him free.
1. Chapter 1

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_**Voltegeist: Yoda, you are not.**_

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"Run, boy!" His father called, great sword held in both hands singing through the air before him as he twisted on a heel. The weapon cut as much as crushed through the two Beowolves, slamming them into the ground as the man stepped forward and _yanked_ the sword up, smashing it into the shoulder of another as it leapt, crushing it against a tree beside the path they'd been walking through.

Gripping the base of the blade and the handle, he held the weapon horizontal like a spear and bellowed, "I will hold them off while you do! And then I will find you, but I can't _defend_ you!"

The boy behind him pressed against the wood of the tree behind him, stock still and staring at the monsters with wide, blue eyes. He couldn't fight against grimm like these and so wore simple jeans and a white shirt, unlike the man in both respects. To contrast Jaune's civilian clothes almost seemingly by _design_, the old Arc who wore heavy plated armor over chain mail and padded cloth, with an open barbute, all colored a dull silver and edged in gold. A thick cloak trailed down his back, stopping halfway up his calves, made of white cloth with the Arc crescent emblazoned proudly across it. On the helmet, a thin spine of white, spiny hairs painted white and edged in gold to mark the man for who he was even in and around Ansel.

Nicholas Arc lunged as the next Beowolf, hemmed as much as _they_ were by the trees along the path, leapt headlong for him. The ancient familial claymore met its chest and offered no gived, the force of the Beowolf impaling it on the weapon and killing it with little more than a whimper, and not even a spark of spent Aura to claim as a success. In one move, the Arch patriarch wrenched the blade free and up, _smacking_ back a Grimm clawing over its fallen ken to get to them.

And more just kept coming, climbing over their fellows as they did.

"Jaune, please, I can win this fight and I _will_ find you, but," the man turned, looking down on his son who returned the flat stare with his own, "run. For now. Find a place to hide, somewhere, while I deal with the Grimm. I'll use my Semblance to- Ah!" He snarled as a Beowolf leapt on his back, claws scraping against his Aura as he shoved it off and turned, bringing his sword high and _slamming_ it down on the beast.

Shouting over his shoulder, he finished simply, "Run or we both _die_, boy! I can't defend this spot, I _must_ attack!"

Unable to bring himself to even speak, the twelve year old turned and sprinted away as fast as his lanky legs could carry him, through the forest and away from the fight down the path they'd been going on. The Huntsman could only spare a few seconds to watch his son's back recede into the thick treeline, grimacing and murmuring a prayer for his safety before turning back.

Now his son was away from the fighting itself, the man surged his Aura, letting out his Semblance and luring Grimm towards him for a mile around, heaving the blade high and finally _leaping_ into the air with a guttural battlecry, sword batting aside the trio of Grimm that leapt to meet him. Now his son was safe enough, and the Grimm in the area lured to him, it was just a game of killing Grimm.

Which he, as it just so happened, was _very_ good at doing, no matter how many came.

He just hoped Jaune could keep running away until he could go and find him, and that he didn't head into the mountains with the storms rolling in…

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"Fuck you, you boney, furry, black, little… Little fucks!" Jaune shouted in that squeaky attempt at a defiant tone that young teenagers often used, scrabbling up the steep, rocky incline he'd run up against as he ran from his father, straight in a line for nearly ten minutes before he slowed down. "Eat rocks!"

Behind him, two Creeps scrambled awkwardly up the slope after him, the blonde kicking and pulling rocks free to send them tumbling in his wake more out of _spite_ than anything else. Many of the rocks hit, he saw when he stopped to rest for a second and look, the small rocks mostly just bouncing uselessly off armored hide, thick fur, and muscled legs and doing nothing. The hill just wasn't steep enough, caught between being steep enough to need to be _climbed_ to make any real progress.

"Which is the only reason the Creeps aren't eating me already…" He thought aloud, watching one hop up to another rock and then stumble and fall back, rolling in the loose rocks and dirt. "At least they can't climb without hands…"

It scrambled back up and turned, leaping again at the slope and then falling once more, rolling over more easily and snarling up at him. The other, though, seemed tired of leaping and scrabbling, instead shoving its hardened nose into the loose rocks and tossing them away. An action it continued until it found a solid rock to serve as an anchor and moved up a few feet to repeat the process. The other, seeing its partner's success, joined in quickly enough, and the Grimm started making real headway towards him. Even some fifteen feet up and ahead, he knew they'd catch up to him soon enough, and turned to keep going.

"Of course, I fuckin' _would_ get the smart Grimm." He grunted, pulling himself up to the next rock and panting before reaching for the next in a long line of muddy hill and loose rocks, arms already sore and with plenty more climbing to do and rain pattering down around them, making the climb even more terrifying. "Just don't fall, Jaune… Just don't fall."

But he couldn't let himself freeze, he didn't even want to _think_ about what would happen if he did. Instead, he forced himself to just _climb_. Past the cuts on his hands, the water slicked surfaces, the dizzying heights and even past the snapping and snarling Grimm far below. He just kept _climbing_, as fast as he could, for what felt like an hour straight, up maybe a hundred feet of steep, wet hill. How he even _made it_ came down to the very strong desire to not get eaten.

Giant monsters hounding you, who wanted to rip you to pieces, turned out to be good motivation _not_ to fall.

Exhausted and freezing, the young boy pulled himself over the edge of the hill and rolled onto his back, sweating so much he'd be soaked _without_ the pelting rain and howling wind whipping against his skin. After several minutes with his eyes squeezed shut against the rain and chest heaving for breath, he forced himself to roll over and look down the hill he'd climbed in his desperate escape, to see where the Grimm were. And then screamed loudly in surprise, scrabbling away as one _leapt_ the couple feet left between him and the pair, jaw snapping in front of him before it fell away and rolled all the way back down the hill.

Around him, the top of the ridge he'd climbed to stretched for about a hundred yards in either direction, never wider than ten feet or more vegetated than a few sparse bushes and short, squat trees clinging to the mountainside and covered in thin branches and sparse leafage. Above him, the cliff turned _sharp_, covered in slick, sharp rocks and almost at a right angle for twenty feet at least before it started easing off.

He was far too exhausted to make that climb, he knew. Already, his legs were trembling under him still as he stood.

Swearing under his breath, he turned and looked down, the Grimm scrabbling up the last foot. Looking around, he picked up a rock the size of his chest, panting and raising it over his head and then _throwing_ it down on the closest Grimm. It hit the Grimm's head with a muted thunk and threw it down under the weight of the rock, the monster sliding, stunned, down the steep and muddy incline. It slid, rolling to recover already, and Juane turned with a petty smile of satisfaction to head towards the right side of the mountain in search of _somewhere_ he could hide.

Running as fast as his tired body could carry him - so, shambling at a pace that would _slightly_ outpace a zombie on television - he followed the ridge until he found a cave that he figured would _work_ and ducked into it. Inside it was dim and damp, and the cave dove deep, at a gentle angle, down into the mountain proper, with round sides and no apparent turns as far as he could see down the dark hole. He looked back the way he'd come, wondering for a moment if he should keep looking.

He turned to leave when something in him… Tugged his attention onto the tunnel's entrance, like a rope tied around his stomach _tugging_ him back to the entrance even when he'd decided to leave. He took a step towards the cave and heard the rocks back the way he'd come shift, turning in time to see the first Creep lumber around the corner and come to a stop, head low and hissing threateningly.

Just as it started to sprint towards him, he dove into the entrance of the cave, shuffling down the gentle incline he found inside as fast as he could manage.

The cave was a foot taller than Jaune himself, but only an inch wider than his shoulders, each shoulder brushing against the stone when he jostled to either side as he went. Several times, he hit stone and scraped the skin, the fit was so tight. The good thing was that while he could shuffle along with his hands on the walls for support and step around the water flowing steadily down the tunnel easily enough. The bad thing was that the Grimm didn't _give up_, it wasn't what they did.

Instead, the Creeps behind him _slammed_ back and forth to make progress, occasionally getting stuck and wriggling for passage, or clawing through the stone with reckless abandon, to follow him down and into the earth. Their violent pursuit sent tremors through the rock and stone that he could _feel_, occasionally even spider-webbing cracks in it that caught up to his fingers. The stone split loudly now and again, sending slabs tumbling down just behind him, occasionally sending flecks along his shoulders and head that terrified him and spurred him onwards ever faster. Ever more _recklessly_.

But that didn't mean they were being slowed down that much, unfortunately.

As he and the Grimm went deeper, the light outside vanished beyond strikes of lightning that silently illuminated the passage. In the dark, he could barely make out where he was going, even though the Grimm, he knew, could. He was weak and small, for a Frontiersman family at the very least, but he wasn't a moron. Beowolves were middlingly fast and pretty strong, Ursai were slow and hit like _trucks_, and Creeps… Creeps were subterranean and pack creatures. Which meant they could see in the dark, and were _far_ more at home underground than he was.

A fact that made itself known when he felt breath blow against his neck, a growl rumbling across him and drawing a strangled scream from him as, instinctively, he _leapt_ forward.

His head struck the stone and he fell, sliding and crashing down the slope quickly, hot blood flowing from his forehead where the stone he had struck the stone. All the way, further down than he knew to be possible, he fell until he slammed into something hard, flat and round at the bottom. His legs flared in pain and buckled, trying and then failing just as quickly to catch him, the boy crumpling in a ball of wounded, bruised blonde preteen.

The grimm weren't far behind and, bleary eyed, he rolled so that he was laying on the metal circle, just able to make out red dots in the dark. Bouncing around, as the Creeps came, but burning with that hatred and malice only Grimm could match. Desperate, his hands felt around the surface until he found a long, metal cylinder about as long as his arm and lifted it up. Some kind of pipe, but if a _rock_ had cracked its plating…

"Come on then!" He shouted loudly, voice shrill, cracking and pained but pulling as much defiance as his adrenaline filled body could manage out of himself. "First one down loses an eye to remember me by! I'm an Arc, and an Arc never goes back on his word, so… I'll make it memorable!"

A cheesy line from a movie he'd seen days prior, but it filled him with the faux confidence of a teenager playing at hero regardless. It was the best he was going to get, the rational, resigned part of him said… The vast majority of him was torn between hoping to hurt them back, and wanting to scream for mommy, though.

Then the metal circle jerked back and down, the blonde rolling across a metal, grated floor and crying out in surprise. The circle closed up, and he heard the Grimm impacting him, clawing against the metal in a frenzy before rock and stone slammed into them and the metal circle both. Thousands of rocks, beating _pelting _against it with the force of an avalanche for a solid thirty seconds before leaving him in dark silence.

Coughing and sucking in stale air, he sat up on the cold, metal floor and tried to look around in the blakness. Then, lights flicked on. First subtle red, illuminating the long passageway for him but not blinding him in doing so, almost like it was on purpose. The passage was simple enough. A dull, ruddy brow grated floor sat over a small, open area below where water flowed by, from the rains outside he guessed after a second. The walls were flat and black, featureless aside from the red lights at the top and bottom of each of the clearly segmented panels of metal. The ceiling was the same, except instead of the red lights it had darkened strips of long, pale glass.

"I would suggest you not look at the lights before they come on."

"Huh?" He looked to the far door instead, where a skeletal _thing_ stood just as the lights flicked on, blinding him. He fell against the metal circle again, arm shielding his eyes, and snarled. Or tried to, the sound caught somewhere between a gasp and a _squeak_ of anger. "What the hell!"

"I did warn you, young Arc." The voice laughed, sound caught between a synthetic sounding but human laugh and an odd whirring. The machine plugged towards him as he blinked his eyes opening, looking at the humanoid contraption. "You are bleeding. I trust you aren't too terribly damaged, Arc?"

It looked oddly like a knight to him, actually, with a bulky, armored and man-shaped torso and long limbs covered in smooth, dull silver metal like plated armor, that ended in what looked very much like gauntlets ending in rounded fingers. Its head was flat-topped, with a long antenna sticking out of one side, and a wide visor that glowed ominously crimson. It's legs, though, were blocky, like the armor had been stripped away at some point for some reason, leaving behind exposed wiring around blocky, ball-ended metal framework wrapped in black cords that held it together.

"I-I, uh, I hit my head on the rock on the way down. And then I… Fell, a little bit, too."

"Oh yes, I heard _that_, little Human." The machine said, letting out a whirring sound that Jaune decided had to be a chuckle or a laugh based on how it shook its head. "It was quite amusing, to hear that sound… Though I took more interest in you shouting at those pathetic, bestial things. Did you suppose you would frighten them off?"

"No, I just… I dunno." He shrugged, unsure of what to say, but the machine just stared down at him silently. Waiting on a real answer. "I didn't want to just… Let it happen, you know? Wanted to at least _sound_ cool when they got to me. It was stupid, I know, but… I dunno, it just felt better than not doing anything. Even if, you know, it didn't _do_ anything."

"I wouldn't say that, Arc. Not at all, I would in fact say _quite_ the opposite." The machine chortled in that whirring way it did once again, kneeling heavily with an electrical, clanging sound echoing out in the passageway as it did. Reaching out, it gripped his chin and tilted his head to look at the cut there, bleeding hot and fast down the side of his head. It reached behind its waist and produced a packet of blue _something_ and reached out to dab it at his forehead, squeezing it out like sauce as it spoke, "I found what you said, and how you did, rather amusing. Enough to save your pitiable self from the monsters quite literally nipping at your heels, at the least."

"W-What?" He blinked, flinching as the cold, goopy liquid touched the center of his cut. Then it soothed and he relaxed, looking up at the eight foot tall machine in quiet anxiety. "W-Why would you have left me out there? Those things would have killed me!"

"Hm? Is it so surprising?" The machine chortled again, seeming more amused than before. "My duty is to oversee and protect this sacred site from all trespassers, and those monsters would not make that any easier. One simple, crying child would not be worth the damages this temple would suffer if I helped him. But," the machine enunciated the word heavily with drops of amusement dripping from it, head tilted as he nursed Jaune's wound, "_you_ were not some pitiful, crying whelp, were you?"

"I mean…" He shrugged weakly and winced, cuts and bruises flaring when he did, the boy fighting back tears at the pain there. "No, I-I guess not… I was just pretending, though, I wasn't actually- I _was_ scared, I just didn't want to… I don't know."

"You do not know much, do you, Human boy?" The machine pulled away, returning the little, silver packet to wherever it had gotten it from and then stood. Jaune gave the machine a look, and it chortled yet again, "You say 'I don't know' quite a bit is what I mean, Arc."

Turning, the machine walked to the door and Jaune got a look at its back, which matched its _front_ for the most part, but with the addition of a large case on its back where a man's hips would have been, and black tubing running up from the case to the back of its head. The sides of the head-sized case were flat, with little handles where they could be pulled open, and unlike the polished looking front of the machine, the back was spotted and dotted with rust and dirt.

"It is hard to clean and maintain my back. The legs are difficult as well, hence the rust, damage and general wear and tear. My automated repair foundry is, sadly, insufficient for _producing_ replacements for the encasement and the like." The machine answered his curious looking, knowing he was looking without even turning to see him doing it. The blonde flinched and looked away, embarrassed to have been caught, and the robot whirred its laughing again. "Best you get used to seeing it, young one, for you are _quite_ trapped down here now. You'll be seeing it a lot."

"What do you mean, I'm trapped?" The blonde stood, looking at the back of the machine's head and adding, "I-I have to get home! My dad will be looking for me, my family… H-He was going to finally train me to be a Huntsman! I can't be… Stuck down here!"

"The only access to the surface large enough for either of us to use is this one, young man." The machine said simply, turning to look down on him and tilting its head to the side. "You did notice the _collapse_ you caused, yes?"

"Y-Yeah, but…"

"We can't dig it out, we have no tools to do so and I am unsuited to the harsh tasks involved. We also have nowhere to move the rock to." Holding up a hand, it counted each point as it made it, "No manpower, no equipment, nowhere to move the rock to… Three reasons we, or rather _you_, are damned here. But _do_ try and look on the bright side, being trapped in an ancient library _can't_ be worse than being torn to shreds and forgotten in a mountain."

"There has to be something I can do!" He demanded, panic washing over him while the machine watched in silence. Pulling at his hair he turned, looking towards the door the machine had come through and then back to it. "I can't stay down here. Open that door, I-I'll find a way through if I have to dig and crawl."

"You will die." The machine pointed out quietly, "Before you make any true headway, likely crushed under tons of rock shifting around your… Efforts."

"I may as well be dead already, stuck down here with no way out." He said simply, surprised at how easily he said it. How easily he realized he _meant _it. "I have a family, I have… Things I want to do with my life, I-I can't just be _stuck_ down here. I have to try _something_, anything that'll work or-or even anything that probably won't."

"Anything at all?" The machine asked, Jaune nodding stiffly at the question. Turning and striding away, back the way it had come, the machine said, "Then follow me. It has been long since I had someone to teach… And if you prove adept, I _do_ know of one tool you may, in time, be able to use to escape."

"What kind of tool?" He asked, walking on still-tired legs after the machine into the wide, round entry room to the temple proper.

Grated floors and the same steel walls surrounded him, going about ten feet up and lined by those same lights as in the other hallway. Three other doors were spaced evenly around the room, one far to his right, one far to his _left_ and one in the back, directly behind the stature. and in the center stood a large statue of a robed man holding two long, straight baton-like things. A metal mask covered its face, staring down at the ground, and heavy, plated looking armor covered its body and legs. A wide visor had been set into the old stone, made of some kind of red glass covered in random seeming facets and grooves. Like the machine he'd met here, it reminded him of knights, in heavy armor and carrying long swords to fight their enemies.

But _unlike_ the machine itself, it had that same… Distracting, attracting feeling that the mouth of the tunnel had had when he'd looked down it. Like it wanted him, somehow, to do something. Which, he knew, was impossible… It was just a statue, after all.

"A statue of the Sith Lord Arkanius, who built this temple when his fellows… Rather pointedly told him to leave their company, you could say." The machine informed him, standing behind the smaller boy and looking up at the machine with him. "A follower of Darth Revan's later ideas on the Dark Side as a whole, with his own interpretations layered on top, of course. Both of which you shall have to learn about if you wish to leave."

"What's a Sith? And the Dark Side sounds… Weird." He asked, turning to look up at the machine and adding in a curious tone, "And why does it feel like… Like the statue _wants_ something?"

"Lord Arkanius is interred here, and so his presence has an impressive pressure on those who are sensitive to the Force… For you to feel it already is a good thing indeed. Useful." The machine turned suddenly, speaking over its shoulder as it went. "As for what a Sith and the Dark Side are… You shall learn, in time, boy. For now, we must tend to your wounds, and _I_ must reactivate and repair the food nutrient synthesiser."

"Nutrient synthesiser?" He repeated silently, grimacing, "That sounds nasty…"

"It is unpleasant, but while I have a sleeping area and the required hygiene needs a Human like you needs, I do not have any way to grow food. Eat the paste or starve, I shall leave the choice to you." The machine said simply, shrugging as they stepped into the room. "This is the library, where Arkanius saw to the storage and maintenance of ancient knowledge in these scrolls, tomes and holocrons. All of which you will, in time, come to study and learn."

The room was maybe thirty feet long and the same wide, only as tall as his bedroom at home had been. Three walls were dedicated to storage, one lined in scrolls stacked on top of each other methodically and capped on either end by red painted wood, the next in heavy looking books backed in everything from cloth to leather, and on the last in little black boxes stacked high and layered three deep on the shelves. They, like the statue, seemed to… Tug on his attention, pulling him to them, but he didn't know why and it subsided after a moment while he looked around.

The last wall, to the right of the door, had a wide, metal desk that took the entire wall up set against it. Two chairs had been tucked under it, one of which the machine pulled out for him, the wheels rolling over the old, musty smelling carpet that covered the floor of the area. The desks were empty and kind of plain, with small triangles set onto the center for… Something. They were raised slightly, so he _guessed_ something would be set into them, but he couldn't be sure.

"Ah!" Jaune cried out in surprise when the machine slammed down a heavy tome in front of him, the blonde recoiling on instinct. It held out a pair of glasses to him and, swallowing anxiously, he took them from him. "I don't need glasses…"

"You need these, Arc." The machine corrected, tapping the top of the book meaningfully. "Those glasses are a device of Sith Lord Arkanius' design. They are connected to the computer network throughout the temple, and I have monitored your kind's transmissions to keep the language translators up to date as well. These will translate the text you are looking at for you as you read."

"How?"

"Do you know how advanced, predictive translator technology functions in translating words and images into ones you will understand instantaneously, superimposing them over the words you are reading as you go based on where your pupil is looking at the time?" He shook his head, and the machine gave his head a gentle pat. "Then don't bother asking how, as you will not understand the explanation regardless. Now, read the cover aloud, please."

"Okay…" He turned, putting the glasses on and then blinking, blue lines underlining each word and superimposing the words he could read over them when he looked at them. "A… Brief History of the Sith Code, Its Interpretations, and Its Applications."

"Indeed. Enjoy your evening, Arc, I shall return in some hours with food and water for you." The machine hesitated, as though waiting for something, and then added in a mirthful voice, "And also, a _test_ on the book's material."

"Wait!" He called to the machine's back, the robot turning to look at him. Grimacing awkwardly, he shuffled on the seat and asked, "Uh, I don't know your name, so could you tell me what it is? M-Mine's Jaune! And, uh, how long this will take before I can go home?"

"I am designated Instructor." The machine said simply, "And… I do not know how long training you will take. But I suggest you get comfortable."

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_**New story~!**_

_**This will take Arclight's place in the roster, and I'm posting it now to maintain that in my head and on my little calendar. Hope you all liked it~!**_

_**Next chapter will mark a **_**huge** _**time-skip to Jaune being sixteen. Star Wars is a bit of a thing for me, something I've devoted time to learning, but I am no master. If you have any suggestions, feel free~!**_

_**Begun, the Prequel memes have.**_


	2. Chapter 2

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_**Official Supporters:**_

_**Grand Priestess, Luna Haile -**_

_**High Priest, Alvelvnor**_

_**Priest, The Impossible Muffin Priest, Xager the Chaos King **_

_**Acolyte, Victus**_

_**Acolyte, DigiDemonLord**_

_**Acolyte, Stonecold**_

_**Initiate, Greg Gibson**_

_**Initiate, Gentleman Mad**_

_**Initiate, Lebenden_Toten**_

_**If you want to be on the Supporter list, PM one of us for details or join our discord. Server ,.for details. Hope you enjoy reading my stories, and remember to post a Review/Comment to let me know what you liked and didn't.**_

_**So, Fanfiction will not let me link to discord. So, I apologize to every single FF reader for this, but please PM me for a join link. And please consider doing so, I enjoy chatting with you lot. On AO3, the link is viable : **__** /2UZncAm**_

_**If I could trick FF into thinking this is not a link here it is (delete the spaces and turn):**_

_**D iscord . gg (slash) kfhkfUb**_

_**Betas for this story so far :**_

**It'z Syndrome: I **_**AM **_**THE SENATE!**

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

"It is time for Force training, Acolyte." The machine reminded him once again, for the fifth time in the last _three_ minutes. The fourteen year old glared balefully at him, pulling the loose fitting robe over his shoulders and sliding his arms through the sleeves, and the machine whirred a laugh, as though it _wanted_ to tick him off ahead of training. Which, to be fair, might _actually_ be the case given everything he'd learned already. "Now, now, Acolyte. You are too small and weak yet to scare me with a petulant little glare such as that. Now get dressed, I shall see to the preparations of the training hall ahead of your use."

The robe and pants were a couple years old, now at least, made by Instructor when Jaune had outgrown - or rather destroyed, in several cases - his own clothes. Simple matte black and equally simple cloth for pants and robe both, he felt and _looked_ like the Mistralian monks he remembered seeing on television all the time. Minus the baldness, at least, he looked the part pretty well.

Though if anyone asked he _could_ have done without the metal flip flops, Instructor unable to make anything else with the little material he'd had left after the robes and his thick, cloth belt tied around his stomach to keep the robe closed. Instead, he'd used small metal plates with the last of the cloth used to make the strings that kept them on. 'Better than having nothing between you and the grating' Instructor had said with a mechanical shrug when he'd complained, understandably, about them.

"First thing when I get home, I'm getting some damn _boots_." He swore to himself once again, the fifth time he'd done it, running a hand through his hair and sighing. He'd adjusted to the uncomfortable things, eventually, of course. But he would _enjoy_ real shoes. "Gotta get out of this hole first, though."

There was only one room for sleeping in inside the Temple, with little more in it than a simple cot tucked in the wall opposite the door and a small set of metal drawers to the right of the door. The room itself was barely even that, only a bit larger than a _closet_ with just enough space for him to sleep, the furniture to fit, and for him to get dressed every morning. It was set off a small hallway only about six feet long, his 'quarters', as Instructor called it, on one side and a small bathroom on the other. Standing shower only, no bathtub even.

But beggars couldn't be choosers, another little snippet Instructor constantly told him on the rare occasion he voiced a complaint.

Through the door opposite the entrance was a longer hallway, about fifteen feet long here, with three doors. One to the right, where the nutrient paste was synthesised from algae, water, and _whatever else_ Instructor put in it. He'd never gone in there and, for the sake of his sanity, he never wanted to for another thing Instructor had said, 'Don't watch your food getting made.'

Which sounded innocent, but something about the way the droid had said it… Unnerved him, about his food.

Across from there was another door into the meditation room, which was darker than it was outside and mostly empty. Inside was only one thing. A simple little red mat, old enough to be threadbare by now, and a single warm orange bulb set in the center of the ceiling. Like his room, it was only big enough for exactly one person to fit inside, and when he _was_ inside he could reach out to touch any wall with the tips of his fingers in any direction. The lighting was warm, though, which was nice.

"Go on in." The droid hummed, Jaune turning to look towards the training hall door where the machine stood, hands clasped behind its back. "Today we're focusing on Force training and control, specifically the latter."

"I'd prefer learning how to use a lightsaber…" He grumbled, face contorted in distaste and aggravation. The machine didn't answer, Instructor knowing it was easier to let him vent and move on. "I suck at control… And I _hate_ meditation days. It's so boring in there… Just sitting for hours, feeling the Force, it's nice but..."

"A lightsaber, while useful, is _not_ your main weapon in a fight, Acolyte." The machine answered simply, approaching him and raising up a hand, three fingers extended. "Your first most important weapon is your-"

"Mind, from which plans and understanding of my enemy comes, and so their fall ultimately derives." He parroted before Instructor could, giving the droid a meaningful look. It tilted its head to the side curiously at him and waved its hand, returning it to the other behind his back, and he recited, "Second is the Force, which can give me the power to observe and thus fuel the Mind in finding solutions, as well as in finding the solutions of others and foiling them or using them to my own ends. Finally is the lightsaber, a tool to be used as I wish it but never relied upon more than the Force or my own mind."

"Good, Acolyte. Most impressive recitation indeed." The droid complimented, head bobbing a rapid nod that Jaune had always taken for it smiling. "You've a strong mind, and you've learned so quickly the ways of Sith and Jedi, at least in principle. Your swordsmanship is even passable, enough that I would trust you to undergo tests outside the Temple if I could. And all done in less than three years. A Revanite born, if I might be so bold. And powerful in the ways of the Force, on both ends, though you can control neither."

"You're stroking my ego." Jaune accused quietly, lacking an heat behind it.

"An ego is a facet of a sentient mind, Acolyte. You need to, and deserve to as an aside, take pride in what you have accomplished so fast." The machine didn't even pretend to deny it, and Jaune hadn't _expected_ it to. It never did, after all. "Slow, to learn or weak Sith Acolytes die, killed in training or by their displeased masters as an example set for the others. You deserve to have pride in your strength, raw and untamed as it might be."

"Raw and untamed won't clear the tunnel, though. Just fuck it up even more." They'd argued about that a year back, and the machine had made perfect sense. A blast of raw power strong enough to push the rock out would shake the _mountain_, and reseal it. If it didn't cause even worse damages to the mountain.

Sighing, he added in an already tired voice, "Let's get this over with, then." Stepping inside, he settled down onto the threadbare mat, his metal sandals laid by the door and legs folded under him comfortably. When the door didn't close, he looked up in confusion, before Instructor stepped into it, and asked, "What?"

"How do Jedi focus themselves, and how does it differentiate to a Sith's methods?" The machine asked curiously, head tilted to the side with the question. "Please," he said when Jaune looked confused, "humor me."

"Jedi cut themselves off from their emotions as much as they can, let the Force wash over them and simply… Embrace the calm." He answered simply, paraphrasing from one of the dusty tomes he'd spent the first year memorizing and testing on. "A Sith does the opposite. Focuses on pain, rage, hate, or whatever passion drives them in the moment like a… Like a focusing lens on a lightsaber, directing and controlling the Force through it."

"Indeed. Good answer, Acolyte. Excellent, in fact, and not even a recitation.." The droid complimented, whirring a sigh before it continued. "Your own words. Most excellent, that you have progressed so well. I liked your analogy as well, though it makes me sad. But luckily, I have an idea on how to find your focusing lens, where so much else has failed so _spectacularly_."

"And that is…?" He pressed, curious and cautious in equal measure of the Droid's end goal.

"Fear, Acolyte." The machine answered simply, stepping back and out of the way of the door. It slammed closed and he shot to his feet, glaring at the door in fear and suspicion. The machine's voice echoed in the room a second later, "You've been afraid of the dark since that night, with the Grimm. Use it."

Then the lights cut out, and he was alone, eyes blinking in the pitch darkness of the room. Screaming, he lashed out, fists slamming into the door and demands that shrieked uselessly into the darkness. The Force came rushing to him when he called on it, like a flurry to match the emotions racing through his mind, electricity sparking along his entire body and arcing out against the metal walls of the small room. With a bellow that was two parts fear and one part rage, he swept his arms at the door, a wall of Force slamming into it. Twice more he tried it, but the door and the walls were too strong, the mountain around the walls holding them stock still and the door built with supports to hold it up.

"Use the fear, Acolyte." The voice echoed around him again, the blonde clutching at his head and sinking to his knees in the dark. He could hear the Grimm, snapping, clawing at the steel around them. "Be one with the Force. Like the Sith do, embrace your fear, accept it as part of yourself, _use_ it to drive you. But like the Jedi teach, do not _lose_ to it, yourself or otherwise. This door traps you, seals you inside."

"So tear it _down_."

As though the words themselves had brought it on, he felt a sudden and different… _Shift_ inside himself, kneeling in the dark. The fear inside him burned bright, and around him the Force responded to his terror by whipping around him in a frenzy of passion and power. But beyond it was calm, the Force beyond his minute tempest of panic, anger and desperation like an ocean of calm.

He'd read about this, the flurry around a Sith was his domain, _his_ tempest to whip up. Most did so just by existing, driven and consumed by passions that fed the Force and drove it into the frenzy. Even a normal person, he knew, had a small tempest of these emotions around them at any given moment. The Force reacted like that to everything that was alive. Sith forced it into a tempest they could funnel, and _Jedi_ fought to have as little impact as possible and instead let the Force carry them as it would.

He could see, and reaching out with a hand _feel_, both though, like they were real. Waves of water, white and black, slamming and raging against each other where he and his effects ended and the natural state of the Force began. Reaching out with his hand and his mind, he let the calm wash into him, but didn't let it take him. Instead, he let it _contain_ him, pushed his fear and pain into it, let it mix together inside of his mind and his body.

And then roared it forward, slamming a fist into the door. The Force, Light and Dark sides both, answered in a swirl of power that warped the heavy metal door. The Force spiraled into the metal like a drill, clutching and tearing right at its center. It screeched free and shot out, slamming against the door across from it, and he staggered out in its wake. Chest heaving and eyes wild, he whirled right and then left, and saw Instructor.

"Excellent work. Positively wonderful." It said, bringing its hands around in front of it and holding the long staff in its metal fingers. A lightsaber, double sided and as tall as his torso was, made of shiny steel. A simple weapon, unornamented and plain even, but the machine held it out to him like something saintly and said, "Take your weapon, Apprentice. You've passed your test and found the way to blend the Force within you."

"This is…" He trailed off, a hand reaching out to brush against the smooth, cool steel towards the ends and then grooved in the center for grip. It called to him, the same way as the cave entrance, the same way as the _statue_, and he realized. "This is _his_ lightsaber. T-The Sith Lord's-"

"You have embraced his philosophies, and his interpretations of Revan's as well. And excelled at _both_, even passing the first real test posed to you with flying colors." The machine cut in, sounding… Proud, in a genuine way, for the first time in Jaune's entrapment here. "I was… Programmed to wait here, until the day an Apprentice came who personified what Lord Arkanius believed."

"You," the machine said, grasping a hand with its own and pushing the staff into it, "are that Apprentice, Jaune Arc."

"I understand…" The weapon was heavy in his hand, heavier at least than he'd _thought_ it would be. He was angry, the fear still running through him, but he let the Force push it aside and asked simply, "What's next, Master?"

"Next," the machine sounded amused again, at what, Jaune couldn't even hazard a guess, but it sounded very amused as it spoke, "you go back in the room, and do it again. And again, and again, until you are able to do it on command. Then, you'll be ready."

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

"Are you afraid?" The machine asked two years later, its head tilted to the side in the odd way it conveyed its curiosity. He didn't answer immediately, just looking at the sealed entryway and scratching the beard he'd grown, three inches long and braided. "Failure could be grave, so if you fear you aren't ready to attempt this then-"

"I'm ready." He snapped shortly. Shorter than he'd meant to, enough that he grimaced but not enough that he apologized. "Just… Give me a moment to prepare, please, Master."

Reaching up, he pulled the shoulder length hair along his head, fingers deftly tying it so it fell in a ponytail behind him. His bands were too short, instead hanging down the sides of his face, but they didn't block his sight so he didn't mind. He needed a trim for them, but he was waiting until his sister could do it. Saphron gave the best haircuts, after all, and he was looking forward to it.

Assuming she didn't kill him when he showed up to dinner four and a half years late or so, wearing black, baggy rags and plinking along with metal sandals.

He seized on that sense of hope and desire, channeling the innate greed of wanting something into the Dark Side to gather his strength and the Lighter wish to be with family. The different sides of the Force within hi stirred at the prodding, the Dark tempest whirling to life while the calmness of the ocean like Light side contained it. Let it thrash and scream against its gentle tides, and let the ragged passions send tremors out into the waters of the Light Side inside him, eventually stilling once more, his desire and greed like drops in an ocean of infinite scope.

He barely even affected the Light, and so it answered his call alongside the Dark.

"Open the door." He murmured, eyes opening, glowing faintly green as the Force suffused him and mixed, intermingling inside him and bubbling up. "I'm ready to leave this place."

Without a word, the droid looked to the door and it clicked, scraping open as the stone pressed against it and screached along the other side. The rocks began to tumbled down, hundreds of them man sized or larger, and he roared in defiance at the mountain itself that had imprisoned him so long. Greed, love, fear, family, all mixing together and surging along his limbs and through his fingertips, the energy _bursting_ from them in quantities he'd never dared summon before. So strong was his desire that the rock and stone slowed its descent, the closest rocks hovering in the air near enough he smelled the earth on them and his fingers touched the rocks that had gotten near.

Then, with a noise that was caught between a grunt of strain and effort and defiance, he snarled and took a short, load laden step forward. The rock and stone went with him, _heaving_ back under the force of his will. Hundreds of tons of rock, lifted and hovering, pushing back against itself at his wish and the Force's granting of it.

He took another step, sweat beading on his brow and body trembling, and nearly sank to his knees. Fear swept through him at that realization, the Temple would fall if he failed, and he'd die. _Instructor_ would die.

"Focus, Apprentice." Instructor said, voice cold and clear, like a knife cutting into his tension and fear. "Not on your fear, but on your desire. Is it worth the pain? The suffering? The work? You have been through hell enough for four years. Only to die here?"

"N-No." But the weight was so great.

"Then _take _what you want. Envision it in your mind, and speak its name into the Force." The machine said, stepping to his right shoulder and raising a hand, laying cool metal on his forearm and adding quietly, "I am weak, after so long. But use what I have, let my power flow through you. Now do you have what you want?"

"Yes."

"Speak it." The machine ordered, fingers digging into softe, unprotected flesh painfully. Only adding to the Dark Side's tempest.

"Ansel. Juniper. Saphron." Name after name came, flowing from his lips and mind both and echoing out, into the Force with a cascade of Light and Dark both. Each word a step, each name a burden shoulder and pushed forward like the stones before him, each utterance a trudging, heavy step upwards into the black of the tunnel.

It took four hours before, finally, he saw light and began releasing the rocks at the back of his pile. The weight gave way in hundred pound intervals, until, finally, he stepped out in the bright sun of noon and fell to his knees, heaving for breath. The air was frigidly cold, so much so he wasn't sure whether his tremors were from strain and in an effort to get breath, or an effort to get _warm_. Overhead, the sky was overcast and, in smatterings in the across the forest around his mountain, he could see some of the heavier clouds showering the forest intermittently.

It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen in his entire life.

Sensing motion, he looked to his left and his eyes widened, a massive Ursa lumbering around the corner. It sniffed twice, covered in spines and scarred plates, and he stumbled to his feet, the Grimm snarling at him and trundling closer. Reaching behind himself, he pulled the lightsaber around, but he knew he was too slow. Exhausted from the labor of moving so much, for so long, and so far. The Force came to his fear and hope, then the latter shattered and the former sparked away, his mind and body too exhausted to go on without resting first to recover.

Instructor, though, was fresh as could be. It stepped by, snapping the lightsaber from his hands and throwing it into its left, the twin red lances of energy sparking to life as it moved forward. The other reached behind it and pulled, from the small compartment, a small and silver gun, blocky and rusted in places.

With a snarl, the Grimm swiped and the machine bent back at the waist impossibly, one side of the saber's light dying. Using the bottom as a staff it steadied itself, other arm snapping up and unleashing two bright yellow lances of energy into the Grimm's chest at point black range. The monster snarled and staggered back, left arm pulling back to swipe forward, but it went no further before the droid straightened and thrust forward.

The red lance at the end of the saber sizzled in the Grimm's forehead, bone plating melting away and flesh beneath boiling, before Instructor pulled it free and turned to him.

The red light died and the machine held the weapon out, stating simply, "I shall never again intervene to save you, Apprentice. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Master." He forced out, force of will alone making him stand and accept the offered weapon, returning it to a loop in his belt on his back. "Thank you. I'm sorry I couldn't fight for myself, I was exhausted."

"I know. And it isn't weakness of the kind you should regret to be exhausted after a quite literally mountainous task." With its off hand the machine turned, long finger pointing far and away, across the forest. "Your home, now, lies there. Not here. You are not welcome in the Temple until you are powerful enough to declare yourself a Lord."

"I understand, Master Instructor." He'd known with every step out of the hole that he'd never return, and been glad for it. Now, though, he turned and looked down the tunnel and felt… Sorrow. "I will return, Master." He swore, turning to the machine, its head tilted curiously at him again, "When I am powerful enough, I'll come back, and _make_ you accept me as a Lord of the Force."

"See that you do." The machine answered simply, turning to descend once more into the Temple and then hesitating. Without looking to him, the ancient machine gave one last order. "Go home, Jaune. You've a family that no doubt buried you more than four years ago. You've much to catch up on."

"Yes, Master." He said quietly, sinking to a knee, fist planted against the stone. He stayed there until the machine disappeared down the tunnel, pulled the thin thin hood sewn onto his shoulders over his head and, once more, forced himself to stand and turned towards Ansel.

Towards _home_.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

Grimm were attracted to negative emotions, he knew, and that was why so many swarmed over the mountain above the Temple. Even there, deep underground, the Dark Side manifested stronger than elsewhere and the Grimm could feel it. So avoiding them in the forest was an easy enough task to accomplish. Merely an effort of walking calmly and patiently, suffusing himself, or perhaps _cloaking _himself would be the better way to phrase it, in the Light Side of the Force abounding in the world he passed through.

So the only Grimm he encountered were those who wandered into his path, surprised to see him and cut down by the heat of his saber before they could draw attention onto themselves and him with them.

And finally, as evening drew close, he saw the walls of Ansel emerging through the trees, stepping out and smiling at the sight of the mountain town.

A ten foot tall wall made of wooden timbers held up packed soil, soldiers atop walking in light mail and carrying long spears able to stab Grimm at the base of the wall. Several he spotted, leaning against a tree, had cloaks that flowed white and whipped in the wind, the Arc sigil emblazoned proudly on their backs. Beyond that, he knew, would be the settlement's crop fields, storehouses and the famers who chose to live with their work. Corn, wheat, beans, potatoes and cotton, to supplement what they bought with the little Dust and _much_ metal the settlement mined from the mountains around it.

Beyond _that_, he could see the cold stone of Ansel's main wall, dark grey stone reaching from one sheer mountain cliff to another. A great, wooden gate, reinforced by dark iron, sat in the center of either wall in a straight line. On that wall, behind low crenellations, more pike-armed soldiers walked, along with the lighter armored riflemen that would fire down on Grimm that attacked that way.

Protected by the twenty feet of solid stone was Ansel proper. Rows and rows of small, stone houses sat, idyllic and full of happy people living their lives. Beyond that, behind behind a wrought iron fence, sat Arc manor. Made of the same dark grey stone as the Asnel wall, with a large center meeting hall for governing in the middle and two long, three story buildings to either side of it connected by enclosed walkways and gardens. On one side was where his father and the town's Huntsman worked, maintained gear, and stayed when they needed rest in between missions.

On the right was where his family were, smoke puffing alluringly from the chimneys. "They're home, then…" He murmured, smiling and fighting back a tear that threatened to break at the idea.

Shaking his head, he pushed off the tree and stepped into the long clearcut area leading up to Ansel, soldiers on the wall noting him quickly and calling out to each other. He made a show of his hands being empty and walked calmly up the pathway to the gate, the wood and iron swinging open to two armed guards beyond it.

"What's your business here?" The lead one asked, a young woman with bright blue eyes, a scar along the right of her skull barely covered by her drooping, blonde bangs. "Traveler, refugee, worker, what?"

"Hm. Why hello there." He snorted, smiling slightly at the question and shaking his head slowly before, in a low voice, answering with his head low enough the hood covered most of his face, "Traveler, you could say. Back from a long, _long_ journey, finally headed home, in fact. Four long years, I've been gone, and I'm eager to finally get back."

"Yeah?" She asked, resting the bottom of her pike on the ground below with the haft leaned against her shoulder, eyes narrowed at him, searching his hood for something. Likely anything threatening. Finally, she asked, "Where's your home, then? I can find out when the next Bullhead is in from somewhere near there and direct you to the inn."

"Ansel is my home." He said simply, using the Force to flick his hood off and smiling at the woman. "Hi, Saph. How have you been since I left? I don't remember that scar, so guess not _that_ easy."

"How do you know my…?" She trailed off, eyes suddenly narrowed to sharp slits, looking him up and down. He could see the gears turning in her head, _feel_ her emotions roil suddenly with suspicion and hope intermixing into a cocktail of emotions. "No. It's not… Not possible. Not even a little bit. W-Whoever you are, this isn't a prank you wanna play."

"You used to steal training swords and we'd spar in the back, under the apple tree our great grandfather planted." He said simply, smiling pleasantly at her and bowing his head slightly. "You were older and bigger, and stronger, so I never won unless you let me. Then, we'd eat apples and go back to get yelled at by mom."

"Jaune… Y-You can't be..." Her pike fell and, using the Force and with a flick of his hand, he pitched it safely off the road. Then she was on him, grabbing the side of his face and turning it this way and that, looking him over like she could find the seams of the mask if she tried. He let her, the woman finally relenting and pulling him in for a hug, "Where have you been, you stupid, blonde, idiot?"

"A story I only want to tell once." He answered, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and basking in her sheer _presence_. Pulling away, he grinned toothily at her and added, "Let's get home, Saph. I'm dying for a good meal, and I want to see everyone."

"Of course." She nodded, pulling away and turning to her partner, the young, dark skinned woman smiling at her happiness. "Terra, can you take over the watch lead? I know it's alot, but-"

"Get him home, Saph. We'll be fine here, don't worry 'bout a thing." She said simply, turning and calling along the wall, issuing orders and letting them know the changing of the guard.

With a shout of thanks, she grabbed his hand and started tugging him along, towards the manor. Smiling, he murmured one last thing before letting the moment wash over him, "This is where the fun begins."

"I hate it when you mumble like that, Jaune." She called over her shoulder, beaming a bright smile that he knew meant she was teasing. He rolled his eyes and let her drag him along, up the hill towards home.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**OH MY GOD THE MEMES. YOU PEOPLE ARE AWFUL AND I LOVE YOU ALL. XD**_

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**Talon ibn La Ahad :**_

**They won't leave the planet, this temple is sequestered away. Thus the mildly tweaked take on the original Revanite ideology. However, a **_**Sith Temple**_ **being on Remnant do imply other things. Particularly for fans of the Clone Wars series. **

_**Warhaven :**_

**I plan, as it stands, for Penny to be in this. As to the Revan thing… I'd answer, but the chapter showed it. XD**

_**Zenith Tempest :**_

**Been sitting on the story ideas for a while, really, for this. Nervous as hell at taking on something like the Revanite ideology, but fuck it. Momma didn't raise no bitch.**

**As for Axe is a Man's Best Friend, it's abandoned permanently now, sadly. People in the channel were uncomfortable with those sorts of commissions being related to the channel going forward, so I abandoned pursuit of them. Apologies.**

_**Josh Spicer :**_

**Slight correction, Jaune's an old brand Revanite. Which as some would argue, isn't **_**technically**_ **a Sith Lord since Sith Lords tend to only use the Dark Side while the original brand of Revanite seeks balance between the two sides. **

_**Scrub Lord :**_

**There won't be any assassin droids, no. There are no class restrictions either, Jaune will be his own brand of Force Warrior. As for Auras and the Force, I intend to get into that later on, so… No spoilers. Same for Dust. **

**Ask whatever you like, might not answer though. XD**

_**Red Demon Eye :**_

**Glad you're excited. And yeah, he's full classical Revanite. So no worries there, bro.**

_**White Rose Shipper :**_

**One, love the name. Two, got the gist of the Review, don't worry. I don't intend to fuck it up, I promise. **


	3. Chapter 3

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

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_**Ze Kaiser Snek**_

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

"Why are you dressed like that?" Saphron asked suddenly as they climbed the hill towards Ar Manor. The Force Warrior hummed at the quiet question, and the armored woman waved a hand at him, "The robes, the hood, the… Metal pole on your back, and those absolutely _ridiculous_ metal shoes. Those _can't_ be comfortable to wear, I'd imagine you feet are covered in blisters."

"At first, yeah, they chafed something awful and hurt my feet." He answered with a shrug, feeling a chill wind bite into him through the cloth robe he wore and, though he shivered at it, _enjoying_ the feeling. "I adjusted, though. When it comes to the robes, though… Well, I didn't have many options, where I got stuck."

"Where _did_ you… Get stuck?" Saphron asked, always the curious one. Questioning, testing, toying, experimenting…

"I'll get to that." He dodged, evading the question and knowing she'd hate it. He knew she'd argue, push him for answers, and so found a way to direct her away from that. Give her something else to talk about, for now. "Why are you a soldier now, Saph? I always thought you wanted to move out to Mistral with Terra. 'Two friends against the world on an adventure' as you both said it."

"I… Jaune, you have a _lot_ of catching up to do about me and Terra." He gave her a confused look and she snorted in amusement, shaking her head. "Nothing, nothing, I'll tell you later." She promised, smile slowly wasting away into a more sad, solemn one. "We were going to, but… Times are hard, around here, right now."

"I noticed." Even if it was barely noticeable to most, he had other ways of telling the differences. People looking ore tired, kids laughing more quietly. There was a tension and exhaustion in the air, along with a suppressed fear he didn't understand, and the Force _rippled_ with it. "What's happened, Saph? What's going on?"

"Father… When you went missing, he tried everything he could to find you, you know?" He nodded, having expected that his family would have almost since the day he was trapped. They were close knit, and if they didn't _know_ one of theirs had died, they'd fight tooth and nail to find out for sure or save them. "Three months of Hunts into the woods, guards sent out to search for you in Grimm filled lands, and the family pulled from Hunting contracts to do it… We lost, Jaune. Alot."

"Damn it..." He'd known and hoped a search would be put on, for obvious reasons and more selfish ones both, but… Three months? He'd not expected that. "How badly?"

"Very." She answered quietly, an armored hand curling into a fist beside her. "And with the loss of people, we lost workers in the mines and the fields, to replace the men and women who'd died or been wounded too badly to keep serving. I volunteered for the guard, and we've… Just not recovered. Terra did too."

"I'm sorry." He sighed, the woman turning an eye on him. He bowed his head, hiding under the hood, and added, "If Father hadn't taken me out to train, I'd have never gone missing. None of this would have-"

"Finish that sentence and I will punch you so hard, _I'll_ feel it." Saphron threatened hotly, the younger blonde turning to her in surprise. With a gentler smile than he'd expected, she explained simply, "You couldn't have known what would happen, and you only ever wanted to help. To do the right thing. Be the hero. There's no blame or shame in that not going to plan."

"I guess… I guess you're right, Saph." He didn't like it, but it made _some_ kind of sense, end of the day. Even if his motivations hadn't turned out quite so pure as she believed them to be, in the end. "I still feel kind of bad, though."

"That's… Understandable." She forced out, sighing and shaking her head. Then, with more force than he'd expected, she clapped him on the shoulder and grinned as the western gate into Arc Manor swung open ahead of them, the guards spotting the woman and recognizing her even if he _knew_ they didn't recognize him. "But enough of all that shit, and being depressed about the past, you're back! That's what matters, baby bro."

"I can get behind _that_, at least." And that was entirely true, too, finally standing on the grounds of Arc Manor. Of _home_, even if it looked a bit different to how he remembered it.

The grass was longer than they normally kept it, the paint flaking off in places, and the stone paving leading between the two sections of the building had bleached over time, weeds poking through in places. No soldiers or Hunters milled about in the gardens, like he remembered them doing, but with the loss of revenue and manpower _both_ those things would have necessarily fallen off, and only one guard stood by at the gate as opposed to the old _two_ that would have been there. The entire place looked older, worn down a bit by everything, but he couldn't really bring himself to _care_.

"Where's everyone else?" He asked, waving a hand at the garden. "The twins used to play there all the time with you, Terra and Mom."

"Mom and all the youngest went to Vale, to stay at a house owned by an old family friend who works at Beacon. Figured they'd be safer there, and they could go to school in the city." She saw the question on his face before he spoke it and added, "Dunno who, I was on patrol when she came to Ansel and offered, and I never asked. Been too busy, and they're being taken care of, so I'm not worried."

"Safer?" He repeated, turning fully to look up slightly at her face, the woman a hair taller than him. "Why wouldn't they be safe here?"

"I'll… Let father explain." She said quietly, shaking her head as they climbed the steps to head into the family side of the building, the woman holding the door open for him and talking while she pulled off her cloak and armor, "He should be in here in just a few minutes, when Terra tells him what happened."

"Will she?"

"She's a bit of a stickler for reporting in. And you coming back?" She raised an eyebrow and turned, headed down the entryway. "Well, let's just get something to eat while we wait, yeah? I've been on patrol for a while and could use a bite. You?"

"Force preserve me, _yes_." He hissed, lashing out to grab her shoulders when she looked confused. "I've eaten nothing but protein _sludge_ since I disappeared, Saph. Please, for the love of everything under the sun, yes, I would like something to eat."

"Okay…" The woman blinked, leaning away from her suddenly, and he wouldn't deny it, rather _manic_ brother. Gently, she reached up to pry his hands off and nodded slowly, like she was afraid he'd freak out again. "Let's, uh, let's get something cooking. Dad'll want food for all of us to catch up either way, so not a bother. Pork steak and mashed potatoes sound good?"

He was in heaven, he knew it.

Inside, Arc Manor was… Rustic, mainly. Heavy, wooden doors leading into simple rooms that served as entry and storage areas. Armor, cloaks, weapons, all of them could be hanged off walls or stored in little cubbies, like lockers without the door, along the four walls. Directly across from the main, more decorated, door was a second door, made of sturdier wood, for protective purposes. Theirs was a family of leaders, soldiers and Huntsman, at least for the most part, and all these attracted enemies as a rule of life.

Beyond that was a sort of great hall, twenty feet wide and as many tall, a hearth at the furthest point from the front entryway and a wide, black couch that curved in front of it. The walls were painted a dark, wooden color meant to be as close to natural looking as possible, and _covered_ in pictures of important Arcs in history on either side. An ever present reminder, when he'd lived here, of the expectations of his family's name. And his father had wondered why he was so passionate and stubborn about becoming a Huntsman.

The room was divided by a long, old, sturdy oaken table covered by a thick white tablecloth, edged in gold to match the edges of the paintings. Overhead hung a heavy, bronze chandelier that sparkled as the light from the fire glanced off it, and its own lights mingled with the fractaling freely, throwing rainbows along the roof beautifully. For now, the table was bare, and the chairs were tucked under its edge all around, the most ornate of which sat at the far end of the room, back to the hearth. Heavier than the others, with solid sides rather than arms cut out of the wood, the thing wasn't pieced together like the others had been. It wasn't _assembled_.

It was a _tree_, carved into the rough shape of a chair, and then lined with padding and fur for comfort. Where the head of the Arc household, man or woman, would sit for every dinner, meeting or whatever else came.

To the right of the table was another door that, he knew, matched the front's design. Through there one could step into the garden and head to the other side, where Hunters and the like lived, maintained their gear, and met to plan or head out for a job. Over that door, though, was a set of stairs that led up, to the second floor of the Manor's family wing. Nothing but bedrooms and, in one corner, a modest library for Hunter information to be compiled, contracts to be stored, and whatever else his father needed it for.

Opposite that was the door into the kitchen which, due to the sheer _size_ of the typical Arc family, was probably three times the size of a normal one. It even had three ovens because, to quote his mother, 'one would take me getting up at six every morning just to make _lunch_ for all of you'.

Why she didn't just get cooks or something, he'd never found out.

"Here you go, Jaune." Saphron said a few minutes later, bringing the clearly reheated food around on two plates and setting one in front of him in a seat near the door. "Reheated from last night, hope you don't mind."

"Not even slightly." He barked quickly, sounding irritable but really just wanting to get to the _eating_ part. Which he did with gusto, shoveling some of the steamingly hot potatoes into his mouth and fighting back the groan that came with them. "Gods, Brothers and Force all, Saph, this is delicious."

"It's just potatoes." She pointed out with a quiet chuckle, taking a much smaller, more reserved bite of her own steaming pile. He ignored her, taking another gluttonous bite and then grabbing a knife to start cutting the meat. "Brothers, you really didn't have real food… Wherever the hell you were, did you?"

"No, all we had was… Well, Instructor called it 'nutrient paste'." He answered, pausing to take an almost unreal bite of the pork and savor it in a way he doubted he ever would have before. "Basically bugs, algae, whatever else, processed into this… _Goop_."

"Ugh."

"Exactly how I feel, Saph." He nodded, sighing as he felt the warmth of the meal - actually _hot_ for once in years - settle in his stomach. "I never bothered to ask about it. Kind of, you know, didn't wanna know what it actually- Ah." He smiled, taking another bite and setting the spoon down, "Dad's here."

"How do you-"

Her question was cut off by the sound of the door being thrown open, slamming back against itself as heavy footfalls carried a large man through the entryway. He'd sensed the person coming, sensed the _urgency_, the panic mixed with hope, and made a guess at who it would be. An educated one, of course, but a guess nonetheless, even if it turned out to be entirely correct.

"Hello, Father." He said politely, watching the man blink at him owlishly. With a small, unsure smile, he reached up to scratch at the side of his small beard, toying with the slight braid there, and asked, "So, uh, long time no see?"

"My baby boy!" The man's voice boomed, arms armored still and spread wide in a rushing embrace as he thundered towards him, the smaller blonde's eyes widening at the approaching _bear_ of a man. "Come here and let me give you a hug!"

"_Force preserve me…"_ Was all he could manage to think before great, metal arms _engulfed_ him in a bone crushing hug.

"You aren't going to… Question me, to make sure it's actually me?" He asked, after the man had settled into his throne-like chair and the two younger Arcs had joined him. And after Jaune had regained his ability to _breathe_ from the exuberant hug, of course. "Saph did a little bit. I had to convince her."

"My daughter is head of the first guard, if you convinced _her_ then you convinced me. Besides," the man's great beard and moustache bristled merrily as he smiled, "I can recognize my own son, Jaune. Even if you look different, older and _bearded_ now at such a young age, I can recognize you well enough. And again, Saphron would have never let you in here if you hadn't convinced her _completely_."

"I have to judge people coming into the settlement almost daily." Saphron added from across the table, trying to help he was sure. "Traders, travelers, people wanting to join the ranks of the soldiers, farmers or miners, nd Hunters coming and going. You learn to tell when someone's lying pretty well."

"So no, not going to waste time on it. I lost enough time with my son as it is, I won't waste more on questioning you coming home." The man sighed in a tired way, leaning an elbow on the arm of his chair and resting his chin on the palm. Taking the moment of silence, Jaune cut off another piece of the pork, savoring it while the older man spoke, "I trust that Saphron has… Already told you about our troubles here?"

"Yeah." He nodded, and then grimaced and started to add, "I'm sorry for everything, Father, I-"

"This fork, your nose." Saphron threatened balefully, flicking the small silver thing into the air and catching it deftly, pointing the tips at him unambiguously. "No apologizing for what you didn't do, got it?"

"I'm not mentioning it to start passing the blame, Jaune. Down girl, no threatening your brother." His father assured him, a hand reaching out to press one finger against Saphron's hand, forcing the threatening dining ware down and away from his face. "I just didn't want you to be… Confused about it, or anything else."

"Saph said you sent away the girls and everyone, off to Vale to be safer." He nodded, asking after the man grimaced, "Why would they not be safe here? Three of the girls are Huntresses, aren't they?"

"The oldest of the girls are working to pay rent and fees for the other's classes, out of Vale. Your mother has to keep an eye on the twins, so she went with them." He said, answering the second part of his question first. More than likely because it was the simplest, easiest one to deal with, which did _not_ fill him with confidence for whatever would come next. "As for it not being safe here… Times are harder, now, than they were before. Less people for the work all around, means longer hours. Which douses hope and raises discontent among the people here, many of whom have no option but to stay and toil."

"Discontent, depression, strife, fear... " Saphron added, stabbing her fork into her potatoes angrily. "Means Grimm coming closer, ranging in the forest nearby."

"Which makes it hard to patrol for the men, which means it's hard to get out and go hunting. Of the more 'meat and hide' varieties than the Grimm ones, at least." His father added with a tired sigh, "I was about to head out on another purge with some of the soldiers when Terra found me, in fact. Over in the other end of the house."

"I thought you'd already left." Saphron grumbled, seeming embarrassed at having been wrong. Over something so simple, no less, which told him she did _not_ enjoy being wrong about anything at all. "Or we'd have gone over there right away."

"I wanted food anyways, so I would have wanted to come over here first." He took a hearty bite of his potatoes for emphasis and the woman grinned, straightening her padded shirt and leaning back in her seat comfortably.

"Just like you used to be when you were little, thinkin' with your belly first and everything else second." He didn't _think_ he'd been that way, but the way his father laughed and slapped a hand against the table, he wouldn't argue. His dad was happy and probably latching onto memories that lined up with how he acted now, and he wouldn't ruin that.

"Less soldiers and patrols also means an uptick in bandits in the area." Saphron, though, had no qualms about ruining the mood, apparently. She gave the older man an apologetic smile when he sighed, and added, "S'important, dad. He needs to know, in case something happens and he sees it."

He'd expected that the settlement was struggling, and could even understand the closer ranging Grimm with everything that had happened, but… Bandits? He'd never thought Ansel would fall so low as to be maligned by petty banditry. It wasn't the main one, but Ansel was an important, protected place. One of a litany of waypoints for traders, Huntsmans and even Atlesian patrols drifting by in the blue sky.

"Why isn't Atlas, or Vale even, helping out here?" He asked, waving a hand around them, more in reference to the settlement than the manor. Both worked, though. "We're supposed to be allies, aren't we?"

"The loss of resources meant I couldn't afford damn fees for their 'military support'. So they were forced to 'divert forces elsewhere, to more successful ventures'." The man sighed, stroking his messy beard with thick, meaty fingers and shuffling in his seat, the armor scraping against the wood mutedly. "Basically, we couldn't pay their 'support tariffs' so they cut us loose until we could. Lien, food, a safe place for them to rest and trade, whatever. We can't give it to 'em, they don't care to help."

"But if we got Lien, we could help?" He asked simply. The man nodded, and he returned the gesture, "So, what can we do to get that?"

"We need more people and support, and to solve the low morale around the settlement." Saphron offered, looking to her father. He nodded but stayed quiet and, taking it as an invitation, the woman went on, "We do that, the Grimm will be less attracted to the area, and we can afford to pay Atlas' fees for their , I don't know, contract Hunters to clear the woods."

"We don't have the numbers for any of it. We could move farmers into the mines, but one, they are terrible at it and untrained." Which meant it was unsafe to do so, on one hand, and they wouldn't get much out of it for the other. "Two, we do that and the settlement starves and withers away."

"Why not wipe out the bandits?" He asked, an eyebrow raised. His father turned to him with a questioning look and he explained, "It just seems like that would solve a lot of problems by itself."

"There's thirty of them, several with Hunter training." His father dismissed with a heavy shake of his head and another exhausted sigh. "Even with the girls, your mother and the guard, we'd lose too much in a straight fight with them. "We'd need at least two teams of season Hunters to help us and not come out waiting to die off. And we're breaking even, now, we can't afford to hire in that many Hunters."

"You'd have to call in another favor." Saphron guessed, the old man rumbling an agitated response. "Let me guess… Beacon?"

"Or Haven, and Haven offers us nothing without essentially selling our land out to them. Bah!" Which, Jaune guessed from his sharp tone, was entirely out of the question. Something he could understand, really. Ansel belonged to the Arcs and the people who were good enough to work it, not a foreign headmaster. "Beacon can't help anymore either without seeming 'compromised' apparently."

"The Headmistress _is_ helping take care of most of the family, Father. They have a bit of a point, worrying about that, while Headmaster Ozpin holds a Council seat." Saphron pointed out dryly, the man grimacing and waving a hand to dispel the notions like a foul smell. "What do they want? The same thing they did before, I would guess."

"Which is?" He asked, looking between them, "I've been out for a while, I haven't exactly stayed caught up with the news around here, you know."

"He wants an Arc at Beacon, but the only one here around the right age to enroll is Saphron." His father sighed, reaching out to take the now stiff looking woman's hand. "But I won't let you be forced sacrifice any more for this place, Saph. You and Terra have given more than enough, and I won't push for more."

"I know, Dad, but if it's that or we lose Ansel…" She smiled and let out a shaky breath, looking to Jaune as though she'd forgotten he was there. "Let's not talk about all this heavy crap anymore, okay? Jaune just got back, and there's nothing we can do about it anyways, so let's just… Eat together?"

"Yes, let's do something other than fuss over this." The older Arc grunted, standing and turning to head towards the kitchen, "I could use a bite to eat, too, now that I think about it."

Jaune wasn't about to say no to getting something tasty to nibble on some more, even if he was starting to feel rather full.

"And _you_," his sister said, prodding his arm, "can tell us where you vanished off to."

Maybe a drink, then. Something strong, if he was of age, because _this_ would be a conversation and a half.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

"The Temple is kind of a simple one, up in the mountains. Nothing special." Considering what it had been dedicated to, at least. He'd lived there for long enough even the great statue had, eventually, grown boring and tiresome to look up at. Not that he'd _ever_ tell the droid that, lest he get another session of 'intensive sparring' or 'pain tolerance training.' "Since I was trapped, Instructor agreed to teach me how to use the Force. As long as I worked hard and didn't send people piling into it's Temple, at least."

"So no visiting, then." His father surmised simply, Jaune nodding curtly at the question. "A shame, I'd have liked to thank him for saving you."

"Instructor doesn't… _Do_ thanking people for things." Jaune grimaced, not sure how to explain it properly. Though from his father and sister's confused looks, he guessed that they wanted _something_ by way of explanation about this mysterious automaton that had helped him survive what should have been a death sentence. "It helped for a benefit he saw in it, not anything else beyond that. So thanking it, far as it would care to be concerned, would just be wasted breath."

"You can… Move things?" Saphron asked after a second of silence, the blonde nodding simply at the question. "Can you show me?"

"Alright." He raised a hand, calling on the miniscule amount of strength he needed, and lifted a knife off the table in front of her. Mouthing 'wow' she reached out hesitantly to take it, and Jaune explained, "I'm not a master in it, per se, but I'm _very_ good at it. At least the normal uses, and raw power. Anything too delicate takes more focus out of me, right now, unless I'm upset and can funnel that."

"Emotions give you strength?"

"Emotions _are_ my strength, Father." He corrected gently, smiling and going on before the man could ask what he meant, "Passions of every kind, when the flare, fuel the Dark Side. And I am trained to take that and interweave it with the serene acceptance and understanding of the Light Side, the kind of energy that comes from the world around me controlled by the kind that emerges from _me_."

"And it's not a Semblance?" The old Huntsman asked, sounding… Confused and uncomfortable, in the way older people did when something new confronted their previous understandings of things.

"No, I don't even have my Aura unlocked." He shrugged, Instructor had been a machine so he'd never even bothered _trying_ to get him to do it for him. It was almost impossible that he'd have been able to, and Jaune had been busy enough as it was studying the Force. "It's a natural ability that people are born able to use, or not. That's what Instructor always told me, and that I was lucky to be able to use it."

"I see, I… Think.." Jaune could tell his father couldn't, in fact, see what he meant for sure. Less for a lack of trying or intelligence, and more for the concept being _entirely_ foreign to him. "It's impressive that you have such a power."

"Useful, too." Jaune pointed out, watching his father closely as he added in a firm voice, "I still want to be a Huntsman. A _hero_. And you said Beacon couldn't help without a promise of another Arc to attend there… Where better to study being a Huntsman than the prestigious Beacon Academy?"

"You must be joking, Jaune. You… Can't be serious." His sister laughed, the two men turning to look at her, the wiry woman slowly shaking her head. "You _just_ got back, Jaune. And you want to run off again?"

"I always wanted to be a Huntsman, Saph. How many people died because of that wish?" Too many, judging from the way her jaw tweaked, and her face turned into a grim scowl. A low blow, bringing up everything that had happened to sharply, but one that worked well enough to do the job. "And now, because of what happened to me, Ansel needs help. Beacon can give it, but wants an Arc to study there. I want to be a Huntsman and help Ansel recover, and to do that, I need an Academy to study at that will let me help. Beacon is the answer every way you look, Saph."

"Is that really what you want?" His father asked quietly, in the same voice as when he'd asked if Jaune wanted to head into the forest with him.

"Yes." He answered simply, meeting his father's gaze while Saphron glanced between them anxiously. The older man rumbled unsurely and Jaune added, "Four years, I've been training to get out of that hole. So I could see everyone again, and be a Huntsman. Save people, get the girl, all that jazz. And now, I can do it and help my family, in Vale and Ansel both, too."

"Then, if you're _sure_…" He asked a second time, to be certain, watching Jaune's face for any reservations. The young Force Warrior nodded simply and he sighed and stood, "Very well. I'll… Go and make a few calls, I suppose. To your mother, then to Headmaster Ozpin. After that, I'll unlock your Aura. For defense, if nothing else."

"Thank you, Dad." With a small smile, he turned to Sahpron and said, "I have to do this, Saph. Everyone else has sacrificed so much for Ansel… I have to too, now. I'd love to stay here with you all, but… Ansel needs me."

She couldn't argue with that, instead looking down at her plate and sighing, "I guess that's just like you, huh? Trying to be the hero even when I don't want you to be."

It was petulant, petty and meant to upset him, he knew. But he simply took the sting of pain that dealt to him and sent it out into the great ocean of the Force, letting it cascade away, and answered, "I have to do what I have to do, Saph."

She'd understand, in time, he was sure.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**Kitsune Robyn :**_

**Glad you find my attempts at it well written, at the least. I try hard, and it always feels good to have a compliment like that come in. **

_**WillcraftNEX :**_

**Such is, by and large, the plan. **

_**Kifo Sotri :**_

**Glad you're enjoying it so much. **

_**Knight Galavant :**_

**Maybe at some point. XD**

_**Ms. Meow :**_

**You **_**know**_ **Ruby will have a fit over his lightsaber. Even if it's not also a gun.**

_**Grenadier Megumin :**_

**No promises. XD**

_**Red Demon Eye :**_

**The issue there would be the theme of Jaune's entire drive to escape is to be a Huntsman, which are licensed and thus require that you be trained at an academy of some manner. So going nomad warrior **_**right now**_ **would be against his motivations, and break the lore a bit. **

**As for pairing… Neo is a decent option, if I decide to put in a pairing soon enough for her to be possible - pre-Fall of Beacon, I mean. But I will consider her, I can promise you that much. I like Neo as a character, she's very - no joke intended - flexible.**

_**Arsinis :**_

**It isn't. **

_**Talon Ibn La Ahad :**_

**The timeline is undetermined, just after the KOTOR games mainly. As for abilities, Jaune's will rely on natural extensions of what he learns and his own experimentation. I can, however, confirm Sith Lightning at some point. **

**Because Sith Lightning.**

_**The Wizardrous Magicman :**_

**If he starts going inventor-ish, I may have him work up blasters of his own along similar lines. Dunno if that will be a thing, though.**

_**Lohamigos :**_

**He didn't get **_**Sith**_ **training, he got the more balanced Revanite training. **


	4. Chapter 4

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

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_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

"On your right!" The man called in warning, the blonde bringing his right arm up to cushion the fist, Aura flaring and sputtering weakly to protect him. Ineffectual from his lack of experience, it gave way mostly and he hissed in pain as the old, weathered fists hit home and his father sighed, sending the blonde Force Warrior staggering to the side of the grassy sparring area far too easily for his liking, "You're not using your Aura to protect yourself, Jaune. An Aura is-"

"A Huntsman's best defense, I know." Jaune pointed out with a grimace, rubbing his arm where he could already feel the bruise mounting, even as the more automatic applications of his Aura kicked in to soothe and heal it. "And I'm trying to focus on it, but… It's hard to focus on the Force around me, and the balance, _and_ focus on my Aura too. It's like I'm spinning plates, but they're on different ends of a room, with strings tied so that spinning _one_ yanks on the other."

"I guess that would be a problem, if it's that hard..." The other man sighed with a small shake of his head, laying the wooden longsword across his broad shoulders and shaking the stinging from his off knuckle where his punch had landed home. "Explain how usin' the Force feels like, then."

"Why?" He asked, instinctive suspicion borne of years of Instructors crueler training springing unwelcomely to mind immediately before he waved the man's curious look off. "Sorry, sorry, just… Let me think, I've never had to explain how it _feels_ to use the Force to someone."

"I've got time, Jaune. You can bet on _that_, at least." The older man grunted with a shrug, walking across the wide, grassy garden where they'd taken up their training. As much to get Jaune ready as to spend time with him, he was sure. Folding his arms, he leaned against the wall of the Manor and added, "Just lemme know when you're ready to explain. Need to know so I can train you properly."

"Okay." He nodded, pacing around the garden idly while he thought, looking at old, overgrown flower beds, vined trees and the short, stubby and stubborn mountain grass connecting them. With a sigh, he sat at the base of one of those trees, head leaned back to rest against it and eyes closed. "Right here, when I close my eyes, do you know what I see? What I feel?"

"Well, uh…" He sensed the man's confusion now, focused on the Force as he was, and heard the thick shirt he wore rustle over his skin as he probably shrugged. "I'd guess you can see your eyelids, and feel the wind blowing through? Kinda chilly this morning, actually, that, now I'm thinking about it."

"No, I don't see my _eyelids_, and I feel a little more than the wind." He snarked with a small grin, taking the half-joke for what it was, since the man hadn't had an actual _answer_. He almost cracked an eye to make sure he hadn't offended his father, but he _heard_ the little chuff of laughter and _felt_ his amusement ripple around him in the Force, so he simply smiled and went on. "When I close my eyes, I see a sea of darkness around me. And for a moment I stand in it, like an island of light. Of life, which causes the light. Then as my focus deepens my attentions expand around me, and I see _everything_. From you, like a bright sun, to the tiniest pinpricks of grass and bugs around us. Tempests of light amid the sea of blackness around me, life made visible against the blackness of empty air."

Part of that was him quoting the book he'd had to read over and over under Instructor's training regimen, but it did the job regardless and the source didn't matter as much.

"It sounds beautiful." His father whistled, giving his head a small shake. "And the Force lets you… Move that light around, right?"

"No, _that_ is just the Force's acknowledgement of life. The fire that burns inside everyone, so to speak. And, uh, yeah. It's beautiful." It really was, seeing the sheer amount of _life_ around him, flowing around other things in a constant drifting motion. Like the tides of the deep seas, and he sat at the bottom, looking at them set alight as though on fire to his eyes. "The Force proper is the energy of the universe itself. It… Permeates everything, from rocks and dirt all the way up to you and me, and even the Grimm."

"And in the Force, there are two large categories for almost everything that exists." He opened his eyes and looked at his father, raising each hand in turn as he explained, "The Light Side which is made up of justice, temperance, contentment and the lighter, more gentle things in life. And the Dark Side, passions of every kind, ambition, desire, and all the _driving_ forces behind our decisions and beliefs."

"Which do you use?"

"Both." He answered simply, offering a shrug when the man's brows knit together in confusion. How to explain this, then... "It's hard, obtaining a balance. A Jedi cuts himself off from attachment, from _passion_, and lets themselves be a tool of the Force's apparent will. A Sith does the opposite, using pain, hate and fear as a source of fuel to burn up inside him, whipping his emotions into a tempestuous force around him and _cowing_ the Force outside of himself into obedience."

"So you do… What?"

"I seek a balance." He finished simply, crossing his arms the same way his father had and relaxing on the ground. This was easy, he noted with a thought, relaxing even, to be talking about this with someone. "Jedi and Sith, self made tool and domineering bastard, if you'll forgive the language. I am neither. I am a _Revanite_. I seek to let my passions drive me, make me stronger, but not _control me_, and I use temperance and discipline to keep me from being a mere tool, drifting in the ocean of the Force helplessly."

"If the Force is an ocean, you're…" He raised a brow with the next and finished, "A swimmer, maybe?"

"Yeah, and it takes a lot of concentration, too." He pointed out, finally wrapping around to the point he'd been wanting to get to. The relaxation was nice, of course, but there was a time for _that_ and a time for _focus_. "And it's hard to maintain _that_ kind of focus and concentrate on moving my Aura around at the same time. It's like… I don't know."

"Like trying to pick up two things in one hand." His father guessed, right on the nose as he tended to be. The man was a brute, a _barrel_ of muscle that as much crushed and cudgled enemies with his great sword and _never_ missed a twist or turn in a story. "You just end up fumbling _both_ and dropping them, half the time."

"Yeah."

"So don't do both, then, Jaune." His father suggested, the younger blonde raising an eyebrow in question and reaching up to toy with his little braid idly. "Swap back and forth, as needed. If someone's landing a lot of hits, use your Aura and let the Force go, and protect yourself until you can swap back. If it's better to switch to the Force, do _that_. Like a Mechashift weapon, with range and melee, you swap between for _balance_."

"Funny, Dad." He snarked through a smirk he couldn't fend off.

"Eh, I thought it was clever, given how you and… All that," he waved a hand at him, and Jaune got the reference to the Force and how it worked, even if the man evidently didn't understand it, "works. Seems like a more balanced, swapping back and forth, setup would be more your style."

"Maybe…"

"Try it. Just let go of the one and use the other instead." His dad commanded gently, reaching down to pick up a rock and bouncing it meaningfully on his palm. Jaune watched it bounce for a second, knowing the threat behind it, before he met his father's amusement filled eyes. "Whenever you're ready, Jaune. You wanted to be a Huntsman, remember?"

"Yeah…" He sighed as he stood, giving the man a small shake of his head, "No one mentioned the 'getting pelted with rocks' part, but whatever. Let's go."

It took five tries, his father 'gently' pitching the rocks at his arms, before the idea worked. The trick, it turned out, wasn't, as his father had thought initially, to _let go_ of the Force. No, that proved impossible, he was too attuned to the shifting tides, ebbs, and flows inside the ocean of the Force's power and size. If he was a swimmer treading water in the ocean he found himself in, using and directing the flow by 'swimming' through it and letting the tides shift in answer, then ignoring the Force was like ignoring the ocean and _not_ swimming. _Not_ treading the water at all, and instead sitting still in it, like he wasn't adrift at all.

Each time time he tried, it was as though he were drowning, the tempests around him _barraging_ his mind and the ocean around the tempests of life threatening to drown him. To drag him down to the deep, dark, and leave him there to suffocate under the water and be crushed under the pressure. So he couldn't _ignore_ it, it was simply not feasible, and left _several_ little, red welts on his arm from the coaching rocks thwacking into his flesh from across the garden.

Instead, he forced his _mind_ to still utterly in the void of the Force, emptied it of any more complicated emotions beyond basic instincts, and sat back from the Force. Watching, but not interacting beyond that, let him keep his head above the proverbial waterline. And, calm and relaxed, when the rock came in for the last time, his Aura sparked in response to his instinctive reaction to _not_ want to get pelted by a rock, and the little stone bounced away from him.

"You got it! Good work, Jaune." His father crowed, sounding genuinely ecstatic that his son had succeeded. Partially, Jaune was sure, because he was getting weary of pelting the young man with rocks. "Now, however you got it _to_ work, you have to learn to get into that mindset and _stay there_ constantly. Hardest part of Hunter training, that."

"Then I need to meditate." He sighed tiredly, rubbing his bruised arm and giving his father a grimace. The other man gave him a half-confused look and Jaune sighed at it, knowing his father had a _lot_ of adjusting to do and, fully aware of it, immaturely wanting him to just get over it already. "I have to meditate to coach myself and condition my mind. Get used to calling on that mindset at will. Just like when I call on the Force's twin sides, and balance them."

"What do you need to do that?" The man asked, putting aside his curiosities on how any of it worked and simply trying to _make_ it work.

"Peace, quiet, and somewhere to sit." He answered simply, waving a hand at the garden and adding, "This place will do. It's quiet enough, peaceful enough, and lively enough for me to connect to both sides of the Force and find the balancing point for my meditation. Aside from _that_… I just need time, to build up the mental state and practice calling it up at will."

"Alright." the man grunted simply, pushing off the wall and giving him a nod. "I'll tell the guards not to bother you and let you get to it. I, uh…" The man gave an awkward smile and, attuned to the Force around them, Jaune sensed an odd anxiety and doubt within him before he finally said, "Love you, Son."

"Love you too, Dad." He said quietly, watching the man awkwardly shuffle before, finally, he turned and left. In the quiet left behind, Jaune wondered for a moment where the anxiety and doubt had come from, and why his father had felt it. Then, he closed his eyes and sat, taking a deep breath before finally letting his mind unfetter and flow away.

He had work to do.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

"Now," his father started the next day, after he'd spent enough time meditating and needed down time from it to rest his mind from _that_ end of the spectrum, "you want your little… Vacation spot to stay a secret, yeah?"

"One, I would _not_ call being trapped under a mountain for nearly half a decade to be trained by a sadistic robot any kind of a _vacation_, Dad." The older blonde simply shrugged and Jaune smirked in return, scratching his chin idly as they walked towards the door into the Hunter side of the manor. "Two, yes. I would like to keep it a secret."

"Why?"

"I… Have my reasons, Dad. Just trust me, okay?" The last thing he wanted was every Tom, Dick and Hairy trying to get down to Instructor to learn how to do all this. The sheer power and inherent risk of corruption would mean another war, and he'd _read_ how destructive the Sith Wars had been. Less Force users meant less risk, so he would follow that logical line to the end. "Why do you ask? Have an idea for that?"

"Yep, I do. _You_ need a Huntsman's weapons and armor, to blend in." He answered simply, pulling open the door to the manor and waving him in, the warmth of the manor rushing out of the open door like it wanted to fight the early morning, mountain chill that always swept down into Ansel from the surrounding heights. "So let's see what the old armory has still, after everything that's gone down."

Inside, the layout of the manor's architecture other side was basically the same as the other half's. Upstairs would be numerous bedrooms and bathrooms for Hunters to rest, get cleaned up and so on, with the addition of one of the corner rooms being retrofitted into an impromptu clinic room. He wasn't sure of the layout - he'd never really been _in there_ when he was younger, and even if he had it would probably have changed over time - but he knew as much as that it was meant to treat and heal up Hunters coming in from a bad field trip. The corner opposite it, the size of two bedrooms and shaped like a 'V' in the corner, was the familial armory. Weapons, armor and the ability to make and customize _both_ were stored there, along with historically important weapons and equipment leftover from Arc Hunters past.

As much of _that_ as there ever was, when one died in the field, of course...

The bottom was, as in the other section, divided between a cooking like the family one ever since the redesigns and the sitting area, with a hearth set into the back. Instead of being designed for family gatherings, though, it had been laid out closer to a cafeteria, or a tavern in the books Jaune remembered reading as a kid. A dozen tables in two lines of six, each one round and made of the same dark wood as the building around them.

Once, Jaune remembered sneaking into here to see the Hunters in their bright colors and fancy weapons, entire _teams_ of grizzled veterans and laughing teams of greener men and women. Out looking for adventure.

Just like he had been, when he went into that forest…

"Jaune?" His father's words shook him out of the moment, before he could get lost in the memories and nostalgia, and the man stepped in front of him. Taking up his entire vision, the older man laid a hand on his shoulder and asked, "Are you okay, son?"

"Yeah, just…" He sighed and waved a hand at the room morosely, "It's sad, seeing it like this. It was so vibrant and exciting as a kid, and now it's just _empty_. Lifeless. I can _sense_ the vibrancy that was here, it's so ingrained into the Force, and now that it's gone I feel… Sad."

Even the _chairs_ were up on the table, looking like they hadn't been used in a long time.

"We'll fix it." The man promised, resting a hand across Jaune's shoulders and guiding him around through the room. "We visit the armory, get you kitted out, and when Beacon's Headmistress gets here with your mom and the girls, we can start-"

"Mom's coming back?" He asked, ambient sadness suffusing the Force pushed aside as childish excitement overtook him like a storm, "A-And she's even bringing the girls? B-But how, it's the middle of semester!"

"Heh, did you really think I wouldn't tell your mom you were home? And that something silly like _school_ would keep your sisters from coming to see you?" The man snorted at the idea and shook his head, "Though, uh, she said she's bringing a blood test."

"A… Blood test?"

"To make sure you're who you say you are, I guess. Your mom has always been the paranoid on, haha… Yeah." The man shrugged after the weak laugh, giving Jaune the distinct impression he _agreed_ with the test idea.

"I don't mind." He finally shrugged simply, stepping past the larger Arc an into the room at large. "It makes sense to run a blood test, I guess. And honestly? I'm just looking forward to seeing everyone, again, so no big deal."

He'd thought it would have to wait until the end of the academic year at the very _least_, and had been planning to get his dad to set up a video call with them that evening. But if they were coming here to see him? He could _feel_ his excitement reverberating through the Force around him at the thought.

A little prick and a blood test was nothing to get in the way of that.

"That's my boy! If you ain't got nothing to hide, you ain't got nothing to worry about, right?" His father clapped him on the shoulder again, which earned a _wince_ from him but little else, and then strode on purposefully like nothing had happened. "Now c'mon, we gotta get you geared and training. I have a lot of catchin' up to do."

"Catching up?" He caught after a second, smiling thinly and sadly at the man's back and calling out, "You don't have to make up for anything, you know?"

"I… Well then." The man stilled, halfway across the room and leaning on a table. Then he turned and gave Jaune a small, knowing smile, "Agree to disagree, Jaune. Some tin man trained my boy for four years more than I got to, and next year you're headed to Beacon to get Ansel back up and running, so I have to try extra hard to get as much time as I can with you."

"Sure." He sighed, "Agree to disagree. Now, a weapon and armor?"

"Of course!" The old man nodded, excited like a child headed to open presents for his birthday. An infectious sort of energy that Jaune couldn't keep from stretching an excited grin across his own face in response. "C'mon, let's get you kitted out. I already picked out some gear and a weapon for you. You like to run light, right?"

"Yeah." He'd only ever fought in his robes, after all, even if he _did_ want to eventually wear heavier protection. "Why?"

"You'll see." His father grinned as they started to climb the stairs, almost cheshire looking in the dimness of the building, most of the lights left off since no one _needed_ them aside form the warm backlighting along the edges of the walls, casting the wide room in orange hues and long shadows.

Inside, Jaune remembered the armory being lined on both sides with every manner of weapon imaginable, right and left both full to the brim. On the right had always gear, stowed by Hunters resting for the night to head out the next day. Now, those lockers were dusty, and the hangers, holsters and tables for setting weapons on and maintaining them were all unused save the closest on to the left side. The side Jaune saw his father's sword resting on a wall hanger on it, in a long line of more classical, Arc weapons.

Many Hunters tended to use versatile, mechashift weapons. Jacks of all trades made of metal and Dust powered fury, swung by people who fought in the same way. The Arc family, though, was one of the few that preferred more specialised, classical weapons. Crocea Mors was an important family artifact and it hung in the Hunter's Hall below, for instance, after its service in the Great War, and it was only a longsword and kite-shield.

Spears, handaxes, waraxes, swords of a dozen Valean varieties and more lined the outside wall. Each clean and polished, likely by his father now that the girls were off in Vale, as though they were new and just waiting on the day they were taken out to fight Grimm and protect people again. In between the two walls was a wide work table to maintain the weapons, with tools and rags scattered across it from use.

On the other side of that, though, was a suit of polished and pristine looking armor. Thick leather, fingerless gloves and boots that climbed up halfway to his knee, all backed in plated silver steel edged in dull and ruddy bronze to protect the outward surfaces. Both those were old and repaired, evidenced by scars on the metal and leather both. Like wounds dotting an old warrior's body, telling tales of what he'd been through.

The torso was a light breastplate, made of thin, plated steel embedded into thick and sturdy leather. Over his shoulders were small, leather pauldrons, added padding to catch claws and blades in instead of his flesh and bone beneath. Little clasps shaped like the Arc symbol were stitched into the connection between the leather pauldrons and the leather cuirass. From those a hooded, dark blue traveling cloak flowed, almost to the point where his knees would be.

"Light, Dust enhanced and stitched leather armor topped with Dust infused Silver-Steel plates." His father explained when he caught Jaune staring, grinning at the mildly embarrassed expression the young Force warrior wore when he looked at him and knew he'd been caught out. "The armor will fit right over your robes, and the dark blue of the cloak will match pretty well too."

"I like it." It would protect him without hindering his movement, at least… And he'd actually get to wear _real shoes_, too. Raising a hand to rest on the cool steel, he asked, "You said there was a weapon, too?"

"Yep." He turned when he sensed something in the air coming towards him, and hand snapping up to grab the haft of the weapon he'd been thrown. "Figured you used a staff looking thing, and you said it had blades yesterday, so… Thoughts?"

The weapon was another polearm, like his, with a long wooden haft about three feet in length and bound in aged looking leather, a round piece of iron on the bottom for counter-balance. At the end of the haft, on top of a rounded bronze guard, a long blade added another _foot_ to its length. It was double sided, chipped on one of them, and _clearly_ as old as it was dangerous. He bounced it in his grip and spun it around his palm to test the weight and balance, grinning in satisfaction at it.

"I like it." The young blonde said quietly, other hand snapping up to catch the short sheath that came with it, sliding it on while he spoke, "You were doing this all yesterday while I was meditating, weren't you?"

"I'm glad you like it-"

"Saphron is coming." He said suddenly, cutting the man off and narrowing his brows in worry. "And she feels… Anxious, frightened, angry and confused. Looking for you, Dad, and in a hurry."

"Saphron was on gate duty today…" The man straightened, all humor vanishing in an instant as he considered what Jaune had said. Laying a hand on his shoulder he talked quickly, the words rushing out in a torrent, "We need to get armored up, Jaune. And quick."

"Why?"

"If Saphron is looking for me, and she's upset like you say…" The man grimaced and gave a shake of his head and a sigh, "Means we have a fight coming to us. Grimm or those damn bandits, but I won't know until I get there. Are you up for a fight?"

"If I have to be, yes. I can fight, even if I end up using my 'saber instead of my polearm." He nodded, and the grim way his father nodded told him _that_ was probably a fact. It was like the Force was intent on screwing him at every turn, he could swear... "Help me get my armor on, then. It'll be faster if you do, I don't know how to yet. I'll go talk to Saph and we'll meet up at the front gate."

"Sounds like a plan." The man agreed, either because they couldn't argue or he didn't see a reason to, Jaune couldn't be sure.

"Grimm." The words left her mouth as soon as Jaune came around the corner into the courtyard outside with his new weapon in his hand and his saber on his back, between the cloak and his armor. Around her, the interior gate-guards anxiously exchanged glances and hovered close enough to keep up with what was being said. "Beowolves, chased a Hunter in. She said her partner stayed behind to buy her time, but the woman is panicked and hurt. Where's Dad?"

"Up in the armory, getting dressed." If the Huntress had been panicking and upset, even understandably so, on her way back in then they'd sense the panic and track it. Like a wolf with a scent, quite obviously. "He said he'd meet us at the gates no matter what. What's the plan?"

"We stab them all as they climb the wall." She shrugged, gesturing with her long spear meaningfully towards the gate. "Let's go, Bro. Hope you're ready to kill some Grimm, because we're about to have some."

He was, he was sure of it. He'd fought against Instructor countless times, and killed Grimm as well on his way home. But that surety didn't keep him from being at least a _little bit _nervous about the whole ordeal.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**Yey, I got sick again~!**_

_**Only effect that it had on this chapter was that I pushed the fight with the Grimm into NEXT chapter. It was that or delay it a day, and honestly, next chapter ends the training and equipping arc up regardless. **_

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**Rogue Hunter X :**_

**Think Grey Jedi, but more driven and outgoing. Like, the difference is in that grey tend to be reclusive, and Revanites tend to be more outgoing and passionate. And yeah, it's a hard stance to maintain, to keep up and running the way that a Revanite needs to. Which is part of why, later down the line, the Revanite **

**The rest of my response is 'Yeah, I'm a world building whore, basically.' XD**

_**Adislt :**_

**Details above~**

_**Lord Troy :**_

**Higher tier Padawan in strength, he's still practicing and getting experience in all this.**

_**Wizardrous Magicman :**_

**I have certain tech based ideas I am toying with, but I doubt sincerely that he'll be laying mines as a main thing. Great for an RPG, **_**but**_ **in practical senses, there's not a lot of times you'd want to mine an area and there's the issue of, you know, **_**carrying**_ **all those mines. Star Wars has some solutions, there, yeah, but that would require him directly getting/making Thermal Detonators.**

_**Commando Squirrel :**_

**Jaune didn't learn how to make Droids, no. However, it is still possible he may gain some technical skill, going forward, in mechanical engineering. Or something else.**

_**Lohamigos :**_

**Those are all abilities, yes, but there's two problems. Firstly, and most simply, those are all **_**advanced**_ **abilities that Jaune wouldn't have had time to learn as of yet. He's strong, but he's not **_**skilled**_ **yet, so more advanced abilities are beyond him. Secondly, as he states in the chapter itself, he doesn't want **_**too **_**much attention on him for several reasons. Not the least being what would happen if one side grew too powerful and started a war against the other side. **

**Remnant has enough problems with, as he said, a Sith War.**

**Also, he needs an Aura to be a Huntsman, since you **_**have**_ **to be licensed to be a Huntsman and that requires attending combat schools and academies. Which hold sparring sessions and monitor Aura to know when to call a fight.**

_**Zenith Tempest :**_

**Jaune **_**will**_ **be combat capable and skilled form the getgo, yes.**

_**Will Craft NEX :**_

**I hope it is a good story, yes. And his Semblance will likely be the canon one if only to avoid an over complication in character threads. His big thing, after all, is his **_**Force**_ **abilities, so his Semblance is kinda meh as far as points go.**

_**Doctor Lithon :**_

**All that is, partially, planned actually. This is not even the true **_**beginning**_ **of his story, after all, this is merely the prologue. He will change and grow as time goes on.**

_**P :**_

**Actively avoiding it as I go, don't worry. Hence the 'can't use Aura and Force' nerf, for instance.**

_**Yinko :**_

**He **_**has**_ **a good reason. He nearly died and wa strapped for four plus years because he wanted to be a Huntsman. He fought, trained, cried and suffered to get out so he could do that. It would be against his character, as it stands, to **_**not**_ **go out to be the Hero he went into the forest wanting to be. **

**Jaune says it himself. How many people died because of his dream, just for him to consider **_**abandoning**_ **it?**

_**Sigma-del-Prisium :**_

**Considered Crocea Mors, but he's not exactly **_**trained**_ **in sword and shield combat. He's more a polearm user, so I gave him something along those lines instead.**


	5. Chapter 5

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

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"She said we should have fifteen minutes, Jaune." Saphron explained as they jogged, her armor clanking and his clothing whipping behind him as they went. Climbing to the top of the wall, soldiers in armor and sporting spears parted to let them by on their way to their positions. "We form up here, receive their attack, withdraw to the main wall if we have to. Either way, the Grimm won't stop until they're all dead. Are you sure you're ready for this?"

"Not really, but I have power and this is _my_ town. I'm not letting the damn Grimm lay a _claw_ on it." He answered simply, using the Force to call his saber around and into his hand, spinning the staff a couple times to feel the weight of it and then nodding. Turning to the woman he said simply, "I need to meditate before the battle. Attune myself to the Force and suffuse my equipment in it, make it part of me. Do you need my help setting up the defense?"

"No, you do your stuff." He nodded and she turned, shouting orders to soldiers around her, and he stepped back and away.

Sitting to the side of the path between the farms, he laid the staff across his knees and let his eyes close on the scene before him. Behind him, he could sense the people in the settlement who couldn't, or for whatever reason _wouldn't_, join the Guard and fight the Grimm. Children, the old, the wounded, those who hadn't trained for the duties needed or simply lacked the temperament for it, all herded towards Arc Manor with the best tenth of the Guard that lived in Ansel.

He felt their fear, saw the way that tempest wafted above the settlement like thunderclouds over the great ocean of the Force. Below, treading the water of the Ocean, he hissed as the waves kicked up around him threatened to overwhelm him and drown him, drag him beneath their panic, fear and everything else and drown him in it.

With a breath, he focused that essence, that storm, into one hand. The Dark Side answered his call as readily as a servant to his master's, crackling through him with a feeling like fire and lightning under his skin. Fire and lightning he held in his hand, the heart of the great storm incarnate, burning and crackling to be free but trapped within his will and mind. Or rather, _contained_ in it. Like a lightning rod for a storm's strike, or a hearth for a roaring fire.

But he could not contain it on his own, not for long anyways. He needed a controller for it, and so looked for the Light.

He reached and, within the tempest stirring to life throughout Ansel and setting his own fire burning in his heart, found the Light he needed. The courage of the soldiers who, trembling in instinctive fear ahead of a Grimm assault, stood their ground yet. Each of them, to the very last, stood as bastions in the storm as islands in the ocean. Unaware of the storm, the islands stood, but stood against it regardless like the soldiers arrayed before Ansel stood against the hurricane howling of the Force tempest around them. Bastions of calm, the eyes of a million hurricanes, and he seized on them and his own calm core, deep inside where his surety of purpose sat.

That he held in his other hand, bringing the two together and letting the cool calm of the two sides of the coin rage and cool in equal measure and changing turns.

"Grimm incoming! Grimm incoming!" He heard the cry of warning a second before the staccato rifle fire began cracking along the line and he opened his eyes, looking up on the two rows of defenders.

Riflemen behind spearmen, the former gunning down the monsters while the former prepared to brace against their charge. Inside a minute, the riflemen began ducking back as the Grimm leapt for them and the spearmen began the desperate job of fending them off, a woman over the gate tumbling towards the ground below with a startled cry as a dying Grimm batted her back.

Using the Force, he lifted himself from the ground and shoved himself forward, using the momentum to break into a run while his staff came around his off side for him to catch. His free hand lashed out and, like burst of wind _blowing_ her up and away from the ground, the woman's arms snapped out and she grunted almost inaudibly in the noise around them, stilling a few inches above the ground before dropping with a metal thud as he reached her, gave her a smile, and leapt with a _thwump_ of Force hurling him up.

A Beowolf met him, red eyes looking into electric green, and his hand lashed out, a cannon ball of Force energy caving its chest in and _hurling_ it back towards its packmates as he landed above the gate. Lightsaber hissing to life, he met the next leaping Grimm's face with the heated plasma, boiling bone and flesh back and away as the dead thing tumbled to the ground beyond the gate. A man beside him cried out as a Grimm grabbed his arm, other holding the wall and pulling itself over, and he swung without bothering to look. The Grimm fell back with a bestial whine of pain and the man staggered away, the next slash beheading the enraged Grimm before it could act.

All down the line, spears reached down to the base of the wall, stabbing at lupine Grimm that snapped and frothed, lashing at the weapons to try and get through or simply _leaping_ and hoping it would work out. Most of the time, he saw rifle fire cut them down, sending their corpses into the wall and tumbling to their fellows below. Occasionally, faster and further than he could even use the Force to intervene, the Grimm would get a hold of the wall or a defender. In the former case, men gave room and pulled axes or picks taken from the base of the wall to beat them back.

In the latter case, men and women struggled to hold their fellow and kill the beast, and usually _both_ fell to the other side of the wall, disappearing under Grimm there.

A Grimm a few feet down leapt at the wall and his hand lashed up, Force pushing the monster to the side and away before it could land. Turning the other way when he sensed the bestial intent, he did the same for another Grimm. But he couldn't keep up, lashing out as he was, even when he collapsed his saber and used both hands, lashing out again and again to deflect the attack until his arms trembled from the effort.

"Agh!" He turned at the shrill, pained cry, hand coming up as fury and defiance welled up on each side of the Force to lash out, and felt both sides chill like the blood in his veins.

Saphron, spear falling away while her hands clutched at the maw of the Grimm on her shoulder, blood flowing past the holes teh Alpha had punched in her armor. It wrenched to the side and the woman screamed again, tossed back and away from the wall. She landed on the ground in a pile of metal, torn cloth, and flowing blood.

Her _arm_ landed at Jaune's feet, while the Grimm brought an arm up to defend against the mighty, cleaving strike from his father's great sword. It batted the weapon aside and turned, claws sweeping up for his throat, and Jaune lashed out at him. With a sound like wet wood cracking and popping, the Grimm's arm snapped back on itself, the monster fighting the Force for a moment before its other arm and leg joined it. Head resting on its chest, the Grimm's red eyes met his for a brief moment.

And then he _crushed_ it into a ball the size of Jaune's chest, which he hurled towards the forest at hurricane force.

Turning to the onslaught of Grimm he bellowed, both arms lashing forward as the Dark Side _rushed_ through him. Rage, pain, a thirst for revenge as sure as his thirst for water and air, all rushed through him and dispelled the ethereal calm the Light Side suffused him with. In a wide arc in front of him, the Grimm were _hurled_ back by the raw power, a wide cone of stunned monsters and cleared ground ahead of the gate.

"Jaune, wait-!"

Without hesitation, he brought his foot to the top of the wall and leapt, hurtling high into the air with the fury of the Force. Then he hurtled _down_ with the force of an asteroid coming to ground, slamming into the ground and using the Force to protect himself in a cocoon of power before _bursting_ that bubble and hurtling the stone around him out and away. Like shrapnel from a bomb, the stone, Grimm plating, even the Grimm themselves hurtled away in a withering shower the sent a hundred Grimm into their demise.

Rising, he slid his left leg back and brought his staff up, spinning on the palm of his hand in front of him as the saber flickered to double-ended life.

A Grimm, one arm hanging lim and covered in rocks, staggered up and hissed a snarl at him as he closed with it, before his saber beheaded it. Using the Force, he hurled it back and into the presence of another Grimm, crushing it under the other's weight and force, while his saber lashed out to his right and bisected a leaping young Beowolf from shoulder to shoulder, blasting the remnants aside and moving to the next. An armored, Alpha Beowolf, covered in broken spines, chipped armor and freshly bloodies wounds, the creature limped toward him and swiped ineffectually with its good arm.

An arm he used the Force to snap aside, _crushing_ the Grimm into the ground until it died, adding its smoke to that already choking the air.

"Jaune D'Arc, you hold _still_!" His father grabbed his free arm, intelligently _avoiding_ the one holding the saber, and spun him to face him. "Look around you, boy!"

Grabbing his hood he used it to hold the boy close and steered him to look back towards Ansel while the soldiers fanned out around them, stabbing and shooting the dying Grimm around them, peppering the few still able to fight until that fact _changed_. All along the smaller palisade wall rocks, bone spikes and plates and scattered, broken armor had been imbedded in the wood. In places, entire _Grimm_ had smashed through the wood, leaving Beowolf sized chunks missing from the defensive architecture.

Holes that let him see _beyond_, where more of the same could be seen littered yards of dirt, stone and the fields. He only saw one or two men impaled on the shrapnel, but he _knew_ more would have been, and that sent his fury rushing away like water down a drain.

"I-I'm so sorry. I-I didn't mean to-" He blinked and turned, saber hissing closed as his stomach _plummeted_ and his meal from earlier came rushing back up. He'd killed people, and not even intentionally… Not even for a _reason_, but instead because he'd been angry. Kneeling in the dirt, he stared at the ground, "I didn't mean to. I was just so… Angry."

"Is this what the Force does without training?" His father asked, kneeling and resting a hand on his son's back. Blue eyes met blue and Jaune nodded, the older man grumbling under his breath. "Damnit… Then you have to go somewhere to learn to fight. Somewhere equipped to deal with... " The man sighed and waved a hand at the destruction around them, "_This_ kind of damage."

"I know." One of a thousand reasons to go to Beacon. .But, straightening, he ignored that entirely and asked instead, "Where's Saph? Is she okay? Is she… Safe?"

"Well, it seems that, in your anger, you… Probably saved her life." The man sighed, patting the young blonde on the back a couple of times and standing. Jaune rose with him and, jerking a thumber over his shoulder, the man grunted, "Let's go and check on her, eh? Get her to the clinic room so we can deal with our jobs. Later, we can go and spend some time with her. Alright?"

"Yeah." He nodded, Force calling the saber back to his hand so he could return it to his back. "I, uh, I think that's a good idea."

Three hours passed before the wounded had been helped, the immediate damages were dealt with, and the forest had been cleared of smaller clusters of Grimm coming in. Every fight between settlement militias and the Grimm, people _would_ be hurt, property _would_ be damaged and lives _would_ be lost.

Which meant all manner of dark, negative emotions emanating out in the aftershocks of the battle, luring wayward Grimm in from further away than whatever had attracted them initially tended to. And besides _that_, he and his father had _hoped_ to find the dead Hunter that was the partner of their wounded guest, to no avail.

All they found was a broken shoulder-guard and a third of an axe handle, the rest all missing, after which they turned for home.

"Saphron will be alright, Jaune." His father rumbled from ahead of them as they walked, greatsword resting across his shoulders and head swiveling as they walked. He shrugged and added, "Well, not _alright_, but she'll live. Losing limbs is… Not that rare, you know."

"I could have protected her if I was stronger." Should have, along with the rest of them. Instead he'd killed three of his own people, even if, admittedly, on accident. His father turned his head enough to meet his eye and he vowed solemnly, "I _will_ get stronger, until so that doesn't happen any more."

"Good. The goals you've set in life require that much, and while what happened to her isn't your fault, being stronger could prevent it in future. And keep you from the mistakes you made..." The man rumbled, sighing after a second and speaking again in a lower voice, once he'd thought about what he'd said. "I'm sorry, Jaune, I'm… Not good at consoling people. I didn't mean it like that."

"I know, Father." The man was not the consoling type, more suited for fighting than coddling or caring, even if he was a loving father at heart. He remembered that being the case and, as the saying went, distance made the heart grow fonder. "I… I know it wasn't my fault, even if it doesn't make me _feel better_ right now."

"I sense a 'but' there." His father pointed out, stopping in the overgrown path and turning to look at him. "I'm hoping for a good one, somewhere in there."

"I know that, when kids are growing up, their Semblances can be… Unstable." He heard stories all the time, and even _saw it_ first hand from a couple young Hunters that had been passing through. A young Faunus who could ignite things with his Aura, constantly setting things on fire accidentally and needing to be taken care of by his partner. "The Force is… I'm not a Master in it, so it's a similar thing. I lashed out, lost control, and… And people got hurt."

"And it wasn't your fault." His father agreed with a nod, watching him carefully. "You understand that?"

"Yeah, I do." It didn't make him feel _better_, not yet, but he knew it would. Quietly, the younger blonde chuckled at a memory before he saw his father's concerned look and sighed, "Instructor used to say that 'People get hurt and die in combat, always remember that. Your fault, their fault, whatever the case. Dwelling on it is wasteful, moving forward honors them, so the choice is easy'."

"That isn't all that funny…"

"He used to say it ahead of sparring training, when we talked about my future." Which meant bruises, cuts and worse, which had been hell at the time. Now? It was strange, the power of remembering something from the past. "I feel… _Sick_, when I think about what happened, but I'll get over it."

"Are you sure, Jaune?" His father asked, obvious concern in his voice and weathered face. "Because I'd understand if you weren't…"

"Yeah, I am." It would be a waste not to, after all. Being sad wouldn't bring them back to life, and it could _end_ his life. He'd recover if only to work towards protecting Ansel, the thing they'd died to do. "It'll just take time, Dad. That's all. I'm good at accepting bad things and trying to get past them."

"I bet… Given the whole 'trapped under a mountain with a killer robot' thing." He nodded and turned, leading the blonde young warrior back to Ansel once again. "Come on… Your mother is going to _kill me_ tomorrow."

Jaune snorted, because he knew his father was right.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

Saphron slept the rest of the day and night away, which Jaune found pretty understandable with everything she'd been through. The Huntress from before had activated her Aura and stopped the bleeding, so all that was left was for her Aura to heal her up, as little Aura as Saphron ended up having. Once they were certain Saphron would be okay, the Hunter had retired to their room to rest and grieve for their lost partner, and hadn't come out save to get food since.

Jaune didn't understand her feelings all that well, entirely due to not having a _partner_ yet, but his father had ordered meals delivered and left them alone. Now, they were sitting outside, Terra across from them, looking exhausted, worried, but as much on the mend as Saphron herself was.

"She's tired, and _sore_, but she's okay enough, now." Saphron explained, sitting across the hall from them, beside the door into the room. She took a drink of her chilled water and screwed the cap on, pressing it against her head to ward off the oncoming headache. "Two more days, we would have hand Hunters here, and this wouldn't have happened…"

"Nothing we can do for it now but to live with it." His father grunted, as much to the young woman as to Jaune himself, he would wager if pushed to make a bet. Which, as bad as he felt about his being gone and 'causing' the situation, was a fair outreach for his father to make. "How is she… Dealing with it?"

"The arm's loss, you mean?" She glanced to the man and he shuffled awkwardly, so Jaune answered for him.

"Yeah, the… Arm thing." Finding a way to talk about this was already weird, even for him. "Is she, you know, okay?"

"About as well as can be hoped for, really." She sighed, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. She pointed a finger at the two of them and scowled a bit before she added in a low, reproachful voice, "And _don't_ talk about it like that. She's upset as hell, and _that_ will only make it worse."

"Your mother will be here in a little over an hour, so… Yeah." His father pointed out quietly, waving a hand at the door in front of them. "You go on first, visit with her. I'll go second, since your mother might be here by then and she will want to visit _her_ and rip me a new asshole."

"And you want to use me to distract the girls, while you use _Saphron_ to hide from mom." He guessed, the man smiling sadly but roguishly nonetheless. Like a man caught in mischief, but irreparably sad regardless of the fun he was having. With a theatrical sigh to play to the game, Jaune stood and shrugged, "Fine, you big coward. I'll be your shield."

Though actually _doing that_ was somewhat harder than he would admit. Even with all his power and the Force, he was still scared to see his sister laid up in a bed… Pathetic or just normal enough to be a good thing, he couldn't be sure which.

Both? Both were good.

He chose both.

"Hey, Jaune." His sister's tired voice reached him before he'd even shut the door, the exhausted looking woman laying against the wall opposite the door.

Her torso was bare under the sheet, he knew, and covered in bandages he could see even now around her shoulders. Several more wrapped around her free arm and a thick one around her head, injuries suffered after she'd fallen from the wall.

Still, she smiled when she saw him, and asked in a tired voice, "How, uh, how is everything? Is the forest clear?"

The only bed in the room was hers, at the moment, even though three could fit. And it had been set against the wall and turned, so her bandaged right shoulder laid close to the wall, the machine monitoring her vitals and the intravenous bag at the head of her bed, keeping their vigil and managing her pain throughout the nought and morning.

A curtain hung against the wall a little under ten feet to his right held the rest of the supplied the room would have, and he caught a glimpse of the metal frames and mattresses of the other two beds, stacked for storage. To his right, a floor to ceiling cabinet had been put in the corner, full of medicine, tools and everything else shut behind thick, heavy metal doors to protect what was inside should a Grimm get in somehow.

"It's fine, Father and I cleared the woods. The Grimm are gone, I could… Sense if they weren't, and if we missed any, we'll cut them down." There'd been a few small packs, but she didn't need to hear that. They'd been _butchered_ easily enough by the duo.

Taking a seat beside her on the little, metal stool that had been left, his hand snapped out and stool hers, the woman squeezing the anxiety out of it reassuringly. The two sat like that for several minutes, the clock on the wall by the door ticking loudly and the machine beeping and whirring, the only sounds in the room while they sat together. The silence was, however, not an awkward one, even if the atmosphere choked with the sorrow of the battle and its losses.

"I can feel it, you know." He finally spoke, fifteen minutes into the silence, finally breaking it.

"Feel…?"

"The loss." He held up his right arm to make the point and she grimaced, sad blue eyes meeting exhausted ones meaningfully. "I felt it be severed, _felt_ the shock. And now, I can feel your emotions, like a storm whirling around you for the sacrifice forced onto you by those… Monsters."

"I… You have a hell of a way with words, you know that?" He nodded but didn't speak, watching her with soft eyes and waiting. She knew it too, turning to scowl up at the ceiling and squeezing his hand hard enough his Aura flared to protect him. "It hurts like you wouldn't believe. I don't even _have_ the damn arm, but it feels sore. Pins and needles, like my arm fell asleep."

"It's normal." Instructor had plenty of books on amputations, Sith warriors tended to need prosthetics often enough.

"I hate it! All I wanted to do was protect my town, and _this_ is what I get!" She seethed, snapping at him and as quickly as the words left her mouth regretting it, turning to stare up at the ceiling fan spinning lazily. "I-I'm sorry, Jaune. I didn't mean to snap at you, I-I just… I don't know."

"'Passion can break thy chains as easily as forge them, shackling you to rage and sorrow'." He quoted, smiling apologetically when the woman gave him a confused look, mixed with the odd suspicion she was being insulted. "Revanite proverb. It means that when out emotions fly and run wild, we do and say things we wouldn't normally. Things that should be _ignored_ by those who hear them."

"Ah…" She nodded and relaxed, shoulder slumping and head flopping against the pillow weakly. "I like it. Kinda like poetry."

"Much of my teachings were like that." Poetry, if rigid and self-righteous at times, but enjoyable and insightful regardless. If only for the _passion_ flowing out of each word. "Another one, then. 'My body is my vessel, not my being. So take of it what you will, o' malicious night, but my being is mine and indomitable. And so you fall, each night in my dreams until the Force makes them reality'."

"What's that one mean?"

"That our bodies contain us but are _not_ us." He said simply, giving her a small smile of warmth and reassurance. "And that so long as we believe in what we want, believe in its truth and possibility, we _will_ attain that goal and wish."

"I like that one, too." She smiled, laying back in the bed and sighing. Blue eyes blinked open after a few moments and she promised, "I'll get over this, Jaune. You can count on that, it's my word. And an Arc-"

"Never breaks their word." He nodded, smiling sadly and nostalgically at the ancient philosophy. Squeezing her hand and pushing aside the blast of melancholy that had risen up so suddenly, he sighed and, with the breath, exhaled the tension the way he'd always been taught. "And I give you mine, that I will _never_ be weak enough to allow this to happen again, Saphron."

"Jaune, it's not-"

"Regardless of fault, Sis." He cut her off, smiling confidently and standing, releasing her hand with one last squeeze of affection. Turning to the door, he murmured one last line for her, "An old Jedi song. 'Sing a song for reluctant heroes, who fight and fall against their wishes. I can see their faces, hear their voices, feel their losses. Sing for these, but not for me, for I stood and wished to'."

"What's that one mean?"

"I don't know." He confessed, letting out a sigh and adding, "Mother is here, coming up the stairs right now."

"How do you-" Saphron cut herself off with a wry chuckle, "Of course. The Force, you can feel people's presences and-"

"Saphron! My baby girl!" The door slammed open, his mother storming in with wide, green eyes set into a weathered, heavier face of a woman that had borne eight children. The woman's body matched that, thicker than her youth as byproduct of her child rearing, but that didn't mean she was _slow_ by any means.

No, she cleared the room in under a second, Jaune dancing around her to evade the charging woman.

"Careful, sweetie!" His father called, joining her and running his hands through his hair while the middle aged woman fretted over her daughter, frantically checking to make sure what was _left_ of her had been treated well. "She's healing still, June. She doesn't have much Aura, so _that_ isn't even speeding it up too well."

"Oh I know she's healing, I'm not so stupid or irate as to _hurt her_, you blonde oaf. I'm just checking that you and that Huntress bandaged her right, _you_ have always been terrible at it." She snapped, running gentle hands over the bandages and lifting the blanket up in spite of Saphron's squeak of protest, checking the bandages _there_ too while Nicholas coughed awkwardly and turned away. Seemingly satisfied she relented and turned to him, green eyes searching blue before something sparked in them and she blinked, collapsing almost to the ground, Nicholas' hands grabbing her shoulders and planting her on the stool instead, "J-Jaune?"

"Yeah." He nodded, smiling and standing a bit straighter in spite of his fatigue. "I'm back, Mom."

"But, how-"

"I was saved by a friend, and trained so I could get back from where we were trapped." He cut her off, smiling softly at her and bringing his hands together, fingers interlaced comfortably. "How about I catch you up over dinner? I'd love to see the girls, again. After the blood test, I guess-"

"The blood test can go _right_ to hell, I recognize my baby boy." She was moving before he could blink, thick arms wrapping around him and _crushing_ him in a mountainous hug. "And you can tell me _all_ about your adventures while I cook dinner, young man. Then you're grounded for running off."

"Grounded?"

"For a year." His father added helpfully, smiling at him, "No running off. Just training, until you go to Beacon.

"What?!"

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

"You're the young Mister Arc, I presume?" A woman asked, joining him in the gardens where he was meditating, two days of cuddles, stuffed faces and long discussions later when he finally found time for it. He cracked an eye to look up at the busty, blonde woman, standing rigid and firm outside the door into the manor's family side. "I wanted to speak to you, but felt I should wait until your family was… Satiated."

"They aren't, but go ahead and talk." He answered simply, sighing and focusing on the Force, enjoying the gentle feeling of basking in those waves of cool peace and warm passion. Like a tropical beach's ocean, tide gentle and strong. "I hope you don't mind if I keep meditating."

"Of course not." She shrugged, asking after a second, "I won't be a bother, I hope?"

"No. My Master taught me to meditate even in the midst of exercises and lectures." And made him absorb the knowledge as well, testing him after each session to see his progress. "A simple conversation won't be a bother to me."

"Your Master?"

"The one who saved me and trained me, so I could get back home on my own." He answered simply, lie coming to his mind and lips as smoothly as the truth, he'd practiced it so often. "Little trader out of Mistral, just a little boatman. He found me near a settlement, no one knew who I was or how I got there, so he took me in. Said he thought I was a Grimm Orphan."

"Where did you meet him?" She asked gently, taking a seat on the stoop and, he had no doubt, committing everything he said to memory.

"Tiny fishing village he'd stopped in at a few days to the south." He answered simply, knowing that the coast was _covered_ in little clusters of houses that survived off fishing and running on their boats if the Grimm came. "He doesn't come to the continent much, so when I recovered over on Anima with him, he had no way to get me back home. And no proof of who I was to get in contact with anyone."

"So he trained you?"

"Yes." He answered simply, "He was a retired Hunter, apparently, though he wouldn't tell me about it. Taught me what he knew about fighting, handed me his weapon," he lifted the Saber with the Force as he spoke, "and unlocked my Aura. So I could get home on my own."

"What was his name?" She asked quietly, smiling when his eyes cracked to look at her and offering a small smile. "I am only curious, Mister Arc. If you wish not to tell me, I won't pry into your affairs."

"... Arkanius Crimson." He said quietly, using the Lord whose records and books he'd learned from and whose weapon he carried, and then adding the color of his saber to it to get the name. Sprinkles of truth made for an easier sold lie, Instructor had always told him. "He died before I left, though. Told me not to waste it, the training and him saving me."

"And that is why you wish to become a Huntsman?" He nodded and she returned the gesture, turning her gaze to the settlement and clicking her tongue. "Well, your Semblance is certainly powerful enough, and you, from what I was told, are skilled enough. Not to mention the Headmaster's offer to your father…"

"Very well." She finally nodded with a small, standing and brushing off her skirt with a hand. With her other, she reached into a pocket and held a collapsed Scroll out to him. "This will alert you to whatever you need, and give you access to study materials and tutoring to keep you on par with your class mates."

"Ah." He rose, using the Force to lift himself to his feet, and accepted the little thing. With a respectful nod, he added, "Thank you, Headmistress."

"You're most welcome, and welcome to Beacon Academy." She reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder, green eyes meeting confused blue ones for a moment and then softening. "I'm sorry your… Master passed away, and sorry for everything that happened here until now. Rest assured, I will _personally_ ensure that Ansel is protected from now on. You need to focus on your training."

"I will." He had promises to keep, after all. Smiling dopily he shrugged and added in a jovial, joking manner, "What kind of Hero doesn't get stronger?"

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

"I saw the damage he dealt, Ozpin." Glynda answered simply over the call, sitting on the edge of the room she'd been given after a long day of work, organizing the sentry drones and officers Beacon had loaned Ansel. "A crater twenty feet wide, Grimm plating _crushed_, and the Guard report he was _devastating_ in the fight."

"The Arc household is an excellent source of quality Hunters, yes. Throughout history, the name Arc has carried quite a lot of weight and influence. It will be put to good use, here." Ozpin agreed quietly, sounding pleased and tired in equal measure on the other end of the line. "How is his mental health, with everything that has happened?"

"Seemingly stable, Headmaster." She answered, "He's upset over his sister, even if he doesn't dwell on it. And his ordeal previous seems not to have broken him in any way I could discern."

"Good. It would have been a shame to have to wait for another Arc in the future to meet my expectations." And would have taken decades, she knew without asking. Decades she didn't like the idea of whiling away, simply waiting for a better asset to come along in her old age, when she'd be near retirement. "How have the defensive measures gone over?"

"Very well, Sir." The drones would make all the difference in the world alone, and the security would bring Hunters and travelers back, eventually. And traders, of course. All of which would reignite the fire of Ansel. "The settlement should recover without your more drastic measures, I believe."

"Good, good." The man sighed, static crackling over the Scroll-Link, and he asked, "When are you leaving to lock down Miss Nikos for us?"

"Two days, Sir."

"Good, good. She's a skilled, honorable fighter. She'll make an excellent eventual addition to our little club." And an excellent replacement for _her_, eventually, Glynda knew. She tried not to let that part bother her, as best she could manage it. "I assume you are getting ready for rest, Glynda?"

"Yes." She answered, sharper than she meant to and grimacing at that fact, rushing to cover for herself, "I have had a long day, Headmaster, and have another ahead of me as well, clearing the banditry out for Ansel."

"You will be safe, I hope." Even as ancient as he was, he still cared, and that was sad to the woman in a way.

"Of course." She nodded, even though he couldn't see her over the call. "Nicholas will be accompanying me as well, so I have little doubt it will go well. Especially with the support of the security forces I bright, and Ansel's Guard."

"I won't keep you up any longer, then." He answered quietly, followed by a gentle, "Good night, Headmistress."

Collapsing her Scroll she laid back, staring up at the ceiling for a moment and, finally, sighing, "Oh for the days where things were simpler… I miss just needing to go on Hunts and grade papers."

Simpler times…

"_Oh well,"_ she shrugged, rolling over to get her sleep while she could. Before her eyes closed, she thought of one last thing, "_One day, I pray, this all comes to something better."_

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**Grape Fanta :**_

**I'm honored to receive such high praise. Thank you.**

_**Bukkake No Jutsu :**_

**So am I!**

_**Dark lord Memeikus (Guest) :**_

**I shall try and meet that meme in glorious battle!**

_**Captain Dick Scratcher :**_

**I interpret it in a disagreement in philosophy. Both sides are halves of a coin, and the Jedi and Sith mistakenly assumed that they were instead separate things. In essence, neither seeks a balanced existence, and that is what the Force is meant to seek out naturally. Balance.**

**The blood test wasn't related to the Midis, it was just his mom being weird and anxious. I eliminated it to prevent people wondering about the plot thread. **

**Most of this will be detailed later, so I can't specify, sorry.**

_**Talon Ibn La Ahad :**_

**Stop. Guessing. What. I. Am. Doing. **_**Ree**_

**It is, essentially, a Witcher rip off idea, yeah. He uses the weapons depending on what he's facing and his willingness to be lethal. He isn't a vicious killer, he doesn't want to amputate every goon he runs up against or dismember sparring partners. **

**Next chapter will be the Beacon Arc, Chapter One.**

_**Arc-Angel-Of-Fire :**_

**Fair critique, and I apologise. **

_**Void Death's Harbinger :**_

**Jaune learned stances, yes. But like his training, they aren't _pure_ stances, but rather he blends and flows between them, seeking balance. Part of his theme and style.**

**Maybe, maybe not. Would be spoilers, sorry. XD**


	6. Chapter 6

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

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_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

Beacon's promised support came continuously and quickly, with an influx of Hunters and guards of the living and mechanical varieties, enough that the militia's numbers waned once again, many returning to their preferred jobs as hunters, farmers, traders, smiths and even miners.

This brought life back to the settlement, and the retirement of so many who dreaded fighting brought a boost to morale and happiness both. A vibrancy of life that echoed around the town, which was then further increased and colored by the steady presence of Hunters and trainees on Beacon assignment to the little town, keeping the woods clear of Grimm enough that the banditry wandered off for fear of Hunter intervention against _them_ directly. The Huntresses particularly, young and older alike, always served as idols to frontier children, one young woman even going so far as rigging up her chaingun and letting youngsters test fire it under her _incredibly_ strict supervision and control.

The Hunters' wisdom, the trainees' eagerness and excitement about the future, and the populace's new hope and sense of safety. All colored the Force like the late evening sun glinting off water and casting it in a thousand shades of pink, red and everything else. It was wonderful, to feel and see when he sat down to meditate or slipped into the Force while he trained his body.

In exchange, he let Miss Goodwitch run a blood test to confirm who he was - for Vale, not any of them, she trusted the Arcs to know their own - and even began running the paperwork to have his certificate of death annulled. Not a very easy process to go through, she'd told him when he voiced a complaint, even if she was handling most of it for him so he'd get done in time. Then, he signed his name on the early enrollment papers, essentially enlisting in the military life that was training to be a formal Hunter. He chafed at the loss of freedom after so long trapped underground, but had to remind himself that it was worth it in the end. For Ansel and his dreams he'd trade essentially any one or any thing.

And besides, to be a Hunter meant attending an Academy, one of the four. And between the frozen Atlas, distant Mistral, and Vacuo with its seas of sand, he knew which he preferred. And if he could attend for free, and gain something for his family along with it? All the better, to his mind.

After that it was a year of study and training, spending his time split between Ansel where his father drilled him to the bone every day, and Vale where his _mother_ worked his fingers to the bone on homework every day out of the week. Not to mention his sisters, stealing him away at every single chance they found, smuggling him treats, and giving pouty eyes to his parents whenever they wanted to play and he had work to do. It was slowing him down, often enough to impact his grades, and generally frustrating to his plans for the future.

But of course, he indulged them every chance he got, and some he at least technically _didn't_, sneaking off with them and dealing with the chiding he received later.

The year went quickly, more so than he'd ever thought possible, but he was happy through it all. In a way that already made his suffering and hardship worth more than gold or Dust, and he knew more was to come.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

"I'll be fine, Saph." He assured her for the thousandth time in the last week, standing in his armor and leaning against the window of the mass transit airship Beacon used to collect its students from Vale and the surrounding, more difficult to reach or leave, settlements. "Yes, I made it to Vale on time, and yes I got on the airship to Beacon. It wasn't even that hard a travel, I had a Hunter for a third of the distance. And my saber carried me the rest of the way."

"_Did you run into any Grimm?"_

"Only a couple Beowolves, and you know what I can do to that low class trash." He left out, of course, the Ursai, Alphas, and the Nevermore he'd had to deal with. A small enough one, of course, that came close enough for him to leap to and behead it. A younger Grimm meant a dumber one, after all, hurling itself into each fight with reckless abandon. "I'm fine. Barely even worked up a sweat against them."

"_Well, I guess you know how to handle yourself, so I won't dwell on it."_ He knew she would, only that she'd do so quietly, but let it go. He didn't want to fight with her about it, it was a waste of valuable time. "_How are you feeling? Starting Beacon, I mean."_

"Fine enough, Saph." Nervous to finally be starting, anxious to get underway and settled in, upset to be separated from his family again. Though, he pointed out to himself again, his youngest sisters and mother still stayed in Vale, for their education and so a parent was present respectively. So most he could see on a fairly regular basis, if he wanted to. "I'll be okay, once things get going, I just… Really don't like flying."

"_Motion sickness?"_

"No, no, the Force keeps my stomach steady. As long as I maintain it, at least." And thank the Force for that, too, he'd hate to be retching his way to Beacon… Not a good first showing, to say the least, to be stuck doing that in front of his new classmates. "How are you dong, though?"

"_M'fine. It tingles sometimes, and the prosthetic from Atlas itches a little, sometimes."_ She sounded strained when she said it, likely knowing where the conversation could go from here and dreading it. For that reason, he guessed, she went on to cut the discussion off before it could really start, "_I'm fine, Jaune. Really. It wasn't the most expensive thing in the world, but it works well enough. You can stop worrying about me."_

"Okay, Saph. I will." He wouldn't, of course. Or rather, he _couldn't_. But for her sake, he'd let the issue lie, and wait to see if she needed anything later. Not that he could do much, but still, he had no other real _option_. "How's Terra doing, now she isn't stuck as a guardswoman, by the way? She enjoying her work again?"

"_Oh she's loving planning the upgrades to the town and managing repairs to the mining infrastructure, she comes home exhausted and ranting about it all the time."_ He smiled, even if it was still weird to consider his sister with someone. He'd never even considered some of his family growing up in that way, but as long as she was happy… "_She's about to head out, actually, so I need to go soon. Want to spend some time with her before work."_

"That's fine. I think I see Beacon in the distance, too, so I would have hopped off myself inside a couple minutes." He'd known it would be a short call regardless, so he wasn't too aggrieved by it ending. Smiling and uncaring of any of the people around hearing him, he added a gentle, "Love you, Saph."

"_You too, baby brother. Be safe at Initiation, I hear Beacon's is… Rougher than some like, usually."_ She chuckled on the other end at something he didn't see and then the call ended, the blond warrior sighing tiredly and clicking his Scroll closed.

It he clicked into place on the inside of his left forearm, a heavy metal bracer added to his setup in the year since he'd gotten it. It wasn't much armor, but it was made of a metal found only in Atlas' northern mountains, that only really had advantages in the heaviest airships they built. It could resist high heat and disperse it evenly across the material which meant, and he'd tested it, that his saber couldn't melt through it like paper. Eventually, the plain, flat little black thing would start to heat up and then melt, but for now it meant he was a bit less likely to hurt _himself_ in training or fighting. And moderately protected from melee attacks besides, mixed as it was with plainer steel to add to its strength and lower the cost.

Beacon probably regretted his 'equipment stipend' now, he supposed.

With some more of it, he'd made a proper harness for his weapons. Two long tubes of hard, dark lacquered wood capped in steel rings wide enough to hold his weapons and open on either side. The staff and blade sat almost perfectly vertically on his back, angled only slightly to his right to avoid problems with turning his head. It would make a natural draw harder, he'd been told, but he had his 'Semblance' to use if he needed to draw it that fast, and could tilt it with his off hand to draw normally besides.

Gently, he tugged his hood lower around his shoulder length shock of blonde hair and leaned against the hull of the ship, watching the forest below pass by idly. It and his beard, which got him _grief_ from Hunters for its length and the braid he put it in to hang to his collar safely, had been thankfully trimmed to look good by Saphron before he left Ansel.

And if it looked a bit choppy with her less than stellar prosthetic? He didn't care, much.

"Hm." He sensed a presence approaching him and turned, a woman with long, red hair's hand pausing halfway to reaching out to him. Quashing instinctive suspicion ingrained into him - Sith training was not a 'trust building' experience, even if his Jedi training balanced it a bit - he asked the bronze-armored woman, "What's wrong, ma'am? Do you need something?"

"O-Oh, no." She shook her head, gloved hand falling at her side and a polite, if strained, smile forcing its way onto her face. It was the kind of smile he would place on people involved in politics, looking nice but meaning little, even if her eyes spoke of a spark of… Hope? "I just… Wanted to introduce myself, I suppose. You looked rather lonely over here, you see."

"Did I?" He turned, looking around himself at the other occupants, and noted with some amusement the several feet in any direction from him. Like they were avoiding him. And he, leaning here with his hood up, might have in fact looked lonely. "Ah. I see. I wasn't, but thank you for coming over on the assumption I was. Miss…?"

"A-Ah. Yes, of course." She seemed surprised by his asking for whatever reason, but recovered quickly. Resting a hand on her chest she bowed her head slightly and spoke in formal enough a tone, he _guessed_ she was Atlesian. "My name is Pyrrha Nikos, and it is a pleasure to meet you. You're... Jaune Arc, if I have things right."

"I… Yes, I am Jaune Arc." Was he that well known? Well, he knew that his return had been mentioned in some papers and on television, 'the boy who survived being hunted by Grimm and made his way home' and all that. Smiling he hoped to deflect from that though and added in a faux-bravado filled voice, "Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue and the ladies _love _it."

"Aha... Do they, truly?" She smiled and visibly, as well as mentally if the Force around her told the truth, relaxed at the joke. Laughing quietly with the hand from her chest and bow now covering her mouth politely, stepping to the side so she could watch the crowd and speak to him more.

"My mother says so." He shrugged, earning another small, half-polite half-amused laugh from the woman. She was surprised, he guessed, at how friendly he was… Which got him thinking. "Am I really that scary, or something?"

"Hm? O-Oh..." She blinked once and he did too, realizing he'd spoken out loud and internally chiding himself but standing there silently, not knowing what to do. A habit he had done much to curtail, but not yet _broken_ since his time in the Temple, and one he bit his cheek for now. "A-Ah, no, not… Scary or frightening, or anything of the sort. Only… Intimidating, and odd, for your story, I suppose."

"Hm." Not everyone walked out of the forest after vanishing with Grimm behind them, he supposed, and the Guard had talked about his fight on the walls at Ansel.

He was powerful, and known to be now, and he was equally weak when he vanished. A young child vanishes, and then years later returns with incredible power that he displays by _annihilating_ Grimm? That was not normal, to say the least. And even if the story had somewhat lost its new shine in the last year, many would still remember it.

"I-I am sorry if I offended you, the Headmaster mentioned what happened with you and I thought-" She shook her head and he stiffened, feeling the Force _ripple_ around her as her emotions swayed suddenly," I'm _so_ sorry to have upset you, Jau-"

"You did no such thing, Nikos." He cut her off without thinking, grimacing when she flinched at the tone. He'd only meant to stop her apologizing, able to sense her anxiety and urge to run "I am sorry, I… Just didn't want you to assume I was angry with you, or anything, Miss Nikos. And I didn't mean to snap, I… Get impatient, I guess. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. After what you went through, I… Understand it." She gave him a small, hesitant smile then and he turned to the window again, leaning against the railing that surrounded the observation deck they were on. For a few moments, as Beacon loomed closer, they stood in silence, Jaune watching the forest and nature outside the thing and she watching him curiously. Finally, she asked, "Why do you carry two weapons?"

"One is for people, the other is for Grimm." He shrugged, the woman leaning into his peripheral vision so he could see her raised eyebrow. With a sigh, he elaborated, "My staff has two plasmic blades, so to speak, that sear and cut through almost anything that it hits. Even through Aura it can burn, so I carry the bladed staff to fight people."

"So you don't accidentally kill anyone. Correct?" She guessed, Jaune nodding and trying to suppress the pang of guilt he felt at that. The woman, though, simply nodded understandingly. Either accepting the decision or, equally possible, knowing the casualties he'd inflicted on the Guard when he lost his cool and not wanting to prod the wound. "A wise decision, I suppose, with a weapon _that_ dangerous. I shall have to watch it if we ever spar."

"I suppose you will, Nikos." And like that they were agreed, the woman smiling to acknowledge the fact. They'd spar, at least once and likely more, when they reached Beacon.

"Please, call me Pyrrha." She asked, offering a hand for him to shake. He did and she nodded, asking politely, "If possible… Would you like to become partners?"

"Perhaps, perhaps..." He grinned, nodding approvingly at the question even as he considered it more deeply. She'd be a decent partner, and they _seemed_ to get along, so the choice would not be a poor one. Only… "Assuming, of course, Beacon selects partners in such a way as we can affect."

"We shall see. You're right to point out we may be unable to partner given however Beacon does their partnering, though." She nodded her head back, towards the passenger compartments behind them, "I'm going to check on my things, make sure everything is in proper order before we disembark. I hope to speak to you later."

"You too." He nodded, watching the woman turn and stride away from him, an odd… Satisfaction rolling off her, Light tinged with something Dark at whatever she felt. With a shrug, he grunted simply, "Odd."

Not _bad_ in any way, though.

Just odd.

With that thought he turned to follow after her, and make sure his own bags were gathered and packed properly. Better now while everyone was fawning over the view than later, when the halls were crowded and choked by rushing student-hopefuls, after all. Not to mention, he wanted the time to think and gather his thoughts, to control his emotions before they arrived. Because now, nearly six years in the working to get there, he was at Beacon Academy.

And the Force _flushed_ with his excitement at that knowledge.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

He'd never _personally_ met Ozpin, even in the year since his early enrollment and agreement to come to Beacon in exchange for the man's help. Something he'd at first chalked up to the man simply being busy at the time and later to being busy _in general_, that he'd _eventually_ get around to it when he had the time to spare. To him. Four months into the year before his actual, _technical_ enrollment he began to suspect when he or those working for him _did_ show it would be to check on their investment. Ensure that he wasn't lazing about, intending to be ousted from Beacon after taking their assets to help Ansel, or maybe even just check that their droids and Hunters were being managed properly.

But over the months, _no one_ came or asked about what was happening.

_Why?_

It made no sense, even now looking back with hindsight and trying to piece together more than he could at the time. The man made a great effort to get him into Beacon, but then turned around and ignored him and Ansel both. Maybe having an Arc in Beacon, and helping Ansel revitalize as well, _were_ simply political, then? He could see an angle there, between the old, Hunter name and the charity of helping a struggling legacy family recover.

But something felt _wrong_ regardless, when the man had spoken. And his presence, the way the Force reacted to it was strange…

"Uh, h-hello?" He felt a hand on his shoulder and his eyes blinked open in the fluorescents of the locker room they'd had to change in, the young Force user glancing up at a young looking girl with bright, silver eyes standing anxiously beside him.

She tucked her cloak around her and swallowed anxiously, reeking of anxiety and fear, but covered by a need to… Do something, in regards to him. "A-Are you okay? The, um, the alarm for the students to head to the cliff went off a minute ago…"

"I was meditating." He grunted the half-truth and stood, only pulling back a scant second before using the Force to do it. Rolling his shoulders in a pantomime of stretching, using the Force to limber him up with the motions instead, he asked in a quiet voice. "Did you turn back to check on me, miss…?"

"R-Ruby. Ruby Rose." She squeaked, hand hovering over her weapon's handle at her waist almost frighteningly. But he sensed comfort in the act, not threat. Like she was huddling a security blanket close, only this one could ostensibly kill monsters. She shuffled awkwardly regardless of the minor comfort it brought and looked up at him, "And, uh, yeah. I didn't want you to be late and get in trouble. You know?"

"Jaune. Jaune Arc." He offered his more armored off hand since she was on that side and, nervous, the girl took it gingerly. He gave it a gentle shake and released the tiny hand, the girl letting it flop to her side unsurely. "Thank you for checking on me, Miss Rose. I was lost in thought, meditating ahead of the coming test."

"Yeah, uh…" She was nervous, he could feel it waft off her in the Force.

"Let's just head to the Initiation, hm?" He prodded gently, gesturing at the far door with a hand. "Please, helpful young ladies first."

"S-Sure." She nodded, turning to bounce away towards the door excitedly, previous anxiety gone. Oddly enough, it seemed, at the chance for _combat_. An odd girl… Who he followed readily enough, without much more consideration, when she called back, peeking around the door frame curiously, "You comin'?"

Thoughts of Ozpin could wait until later, assuming he let his Sith paranoia run wild the way he had been so far. That point was a good enough reason to cut the thoughts off there, though. No need to let the Dark Side hook him any more than was strictly necessary, of course, lest he disrupt the Balance. Down that road lay _problems_, he decided, pushing the thoughts and Ozpin's odd Force presence off for now to focus on more important matters.

"S-So, uh..." The girl started as they walked, some way behind the _herd_ of other student hopefuls, still visible down the halls to be followed. Even _if_ he couldn't sense their anxiety, sheer apprehension, false confidence and every other that blended together under the young fighters' minds. With a flourish, she pulled out her weapon, the _scythe_ expanding smoothly in her hands while she grinned, "T-This is my baby!"

"Ah." He glanced it over once, then twice, and guessed, based on what he could see. "Combat scythe with a concussive ordinance oriented sniper chamber and mid-range marksman scope. High impact or low?"

"O-Oh, it's high. H-High impact, I mean, not… _High_ high." She seemed surprised at his analysis, but recovered quickly enough, collapsing it into rifle form in another show of what it was. "It's high impact to stagger Grimm that take the hits, and help me maneuver, since I'm so small."

"You fire and the recoil sends you flying. Faster if you hit something next to you, I'm guessing, since _that_ concussive force would add to the propulsion." Not unlike when he used Force Slam, hurling himself down with a blast of Force and using another to damped the blow and cause a reactive explosion.

"Yes!" She nodded, smiling widely either at his quick understanding or something else he couldn't place, petals falling from her cloak as they walked now. As though in reaction. A Semblance, he decided quickly, electing to ignore it. "I like to, you know, be _fast_. Grimm never see me coming!"

"I bet."

"What about yours?" She asked, innocent eyes landing on him again over a small smile.

"My… Ah." He nodded, reaching up with both hands to retrieve his weapons, holding one up as he explained them. "This is my kind of glaive-"

"That's a light falx, Mistralian design. The blade is thinner so it can be longer without messing with the weight, and straightened it looks like, too. So maybe less a light falx and more a short-spear, or staff-saber." She corrected automatically, blinking and blushing when she realized she'd interrupted him and pulling her hood over her head tightly. "'M sorry… I shouldn't have interrupted."

"You like weapons quite a lot." He observed, the girl returning to shyness now and simply nodding at his question. "I don't know the names of things like that, never been interested, so I'll take your word. I only carry it so I can fight people without hurting them."

"The other, then?" She looked at the staff saber in his hands, eyes looking for any sign of mecha-shift or anything else to explain its function.

"It sears and incinerates, hotter than anything can take. Even Aura can't handle it, so using it against people carries a high risk of maiming them." Or killing them outright, more likely, with how he'd been trained to fight. Against some, he was sure, that would be useful, but not against the common thief or sparring opponent. "We'll be fighting Grimm, so maybe you'll see what it can do."

"I hope so!" She bounced, shyness gone again as he returned his weapons to their holsters and she did the same, rambling on about how she fought Grimm while he listened patiently and tried to keep up with her. Finally quieting, she grew somber and almost whispered, "I just want to do well, so I can get my license and help people."

"Ah." She was so innocent, he could sense it in her words and the way the Light Side wrapped around her, when she was calm enough not to whip up a tempest of emotions. It cocooned her protectively, as though magnetized to her very _being_. Quietly, he promised, "You'll pass and go on to help people. I know it."

"Really?" He nodded and she smiled, wide and innocent like his younger sisters. Then it vanished into anxiety once again, "I'm nervous, though, you know? I'm two years ahead… W-What if a Grimm gets me, you know?"

"Is that scary enough for you to back down?"

"Of course not, that'd be silly." She snapped, as much as she seemed able to _snap_ at anyone. Even as weak and lacking heat as it had, she still smiled sheepishly and offered, "I'm sorry, that was mean."

"The Grimm won't get you." He promised, mouth moving before his brain, her innocence and anxiety so like his sisters that he acted on protective instinct. She gave him a confused look and, trapped now, he elaborated, "I'll protect you, Ruby. I promise. As much as I am able, at least, I'll try and protect you, if you need it."

"I-I… Thanks." She nodded, smiling at him and shrugging like it didn't matter, though he knew for fact it had soothed her fears to even be offered it. "But it's okay, I'm gonna find my big sis and she'll help me as much as I need. N-Not that I need it, or anything! B-But, just saying, if I do…"

"I understand." He nodded, waving a hand to dismiss the line of thought and chiding himself for not thinking before speaking. "Now you were… Talking about your rifle? Crescent Rose, hm?"

Deep down, he hoped sincerely _not_ to face any powerful Grimm out there… His power was, as yet, too unwieldy to use wantonly. If they faced anything great or numerous, he would be forced to give himself to the Force to protect those behind him. A hero didn't let the weak fall when he could protect them, after all, even if it was risky to defend them. So sincerely, he hoped the Force would guide him so that he faced only normal Grimm and small numbers, where his saber would be all he needed.

A sense overtook him though, a flash of fear and red when he blinked, and he got the feeling _that_ was a hope that would leave him very, _very_ disappointed.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

"The platforms you stand upon now will, at the end of a timer, catapult you out over the Emerald Forest. There you will face Grimm of a caliber that would have a village calling for a _team_ of Hunters. It is _imperative_ that you find your partner and make your way to the objectives, you get no credit for Grimm slayed. Or for dying, for that matter." Ozpin explained, some of the more nervous students exchanging wary glances at that while Jaune stood, hands clasping his wrists in front of him comfortably. Ozpin looked them over in the brief moment before he continued to speak, eyes narrowing _slightly_ on Jaune's cool demeanor. "Remember that, in the Emerald Forest, enemies are everywhere. Focus on surviving, not winning."

"Now then, on the topic of partners, I know some of you have been wondering how you will be assigned partners. The truth is… You will not." Confused, the students exchanged glances and even Jaune would admit to his eyes narrowing at the statement. "Your partner will be the first potential student whose eyes you meet. Good luck, and that will be all."

"Lunacy…" He murmured, the man's smile curling more when he heard the words. Beside him, he sensed Ruby's panic and trepidation spike, now knowing she couldn't simply _select_ her sister as her partner. Gently, he pushed the Force around her, enveloping her in the Light Side and subtly directing her eyes to him. He smiled as their eyes met and the Force's influence calmed her, "You will be fine, Ruby. May the Force guide you."

"O-Okay?" She seemed confused, but he didn't explain it, instead kneeling on the platform as the ticking started. Distantly to his left, he heard the first _cathunk_ of a catapult kicking a student into the air with a howl of adrenaline. Voice quiet, like she was scared she'd get detention for speaking in class, she asked, "W-What does that mean?"

"Meet me after Initiation, maybe I'll explain it." He let his eyes close then, letting the Force wash through his mind. Like cool water tempering hot steel, his nerves cooled and breathing slowed, the world around him lighting up like a world made electric. "I'm ready… I am one with the Force. The Force is with me."

With a loud whir and _thunk_, he was hurtled into the air at missile speed, wind whistling by him while he tried to regain his center of gravity. Arms and legs splayed, he let his fear course, adrenaline and the Force surging with it and giving him power as his arc reached its end and he began to fall to Remnant far below, behind rows of trees like jagged teeth in his way. With a howl lost to the wind he reached an arm back and shot it forward, the Force _cracking_ in front of him like a scythe, crushing several trees in his path as he descended. Seeing the forest floor, he curled into a ball and rolled, feet pointed at the ground when he went spread eagle again and used the Force to slow his descent.

He hit the ground harder than he'd hoped and turned it into a roll, landing on his shoulder and coming up in a jog that carried him a couple feet before he came to a stop, leaning on a tree to catch his breath. With a grunt, he repeated, "Lunacy…"

And then began walking, making his way through the forest in search of a partner. A search which didn't take long, it turned out, rounding a bend in a natural path from clearing to clearing and blinking in surprise at the close proximity of the red-haired woman. Pyrrha staggered back, sword half-raising in instinctive defense before she relaxed and smiled, nodding a greeting to him.

"I suppose we're partners then." He could sense her satisfaction at his words, and smiled in return. Either because of her infective happiness at the news or his own, he wasn't sure, and in the end it wouldn't matter. Turning as he sensed movement, and _not_ a person's Force presence to accompany it, he sighed and grunted, "Grimm."

"I don't see anythin-" She cut herself off at the sound of wood snapping and beasts snarling, not questioning him and instead stepping between the sound and her new partner, legs bowed and shield raised to protect them. Without even a thought for herself, he noted, calling his saber-staff forth with the Force. "Stay behind me, Jaune, I'll take the first charge. Then you select your target and-"

"I have a better idea, Pyr." He rested a hand on her shoulder and stepped in front of her, twin blades of scarlet plasma _hissing_ to life at the end of the staff held horizontally before him. "I'll take the first charge, and show you what your partner can do."

She didn't get a chance to argue, a plateless Beowolf crashing through the underbrush awkwardly, half-falling and snapping at them pitiably. With a roll of his eyes he turned and pushed his hand forward, a concussive _blast_ of Force hurling the monster back and into a tree where its bones shattered and it sagged. The next two were older, lightly armored and knowing how to stop a rush without stumbling, instead conserving their momentum and force into charging leaps. He leapt as well, using the Force to spin and holding his staff across his chest, turning him into a spinning top of death, slicing the Grimm to ribbons as he sailed between them, rolling as he had in the air previous to land. A fourth emerged, this one mature and armored to match, and his saber sizzled as his feet met its shoulders and the bottom blade cut down through its head and into its neck.

"Switch!" He called, kicking off the Grimm with the Force and sailing away from the next two.

Pyrrha must have understood his intention, for her spear bit deep into one's chest while she sailed into the other, her shield slamming into its throat rim first and turning its snarl into a choke. As though pulled by the Force, her spear returned to her hand and she knelt, leaping and using the force to thrust through the Grimm's neck. Her leap carried her through it, ichor splashing across her arm as she went through, and rolled in the air, sending her shield biting into the Alpha's shoulder with a crack of bone plating shattering that sounded like a gunshot.

But he sensed her panic, her realization that the Grimm had survived unharmed enough to fight and could strike back at her in her position. Claws whistling, the beast made to take advantage of that opening, the woman in the air and unable to dodge. His hands rose then, saber flicking off to avoid cutting himself in his focus on his power, his _partner_ and the Grimm. One grabbed Pyrrha and _yanked _her back sharp enough she cried out once and then twice when she landed behind him with a flare of cushioning Aura and had to roll to rise steadily. The other sent a fist of Force power into the monster's stomach and legs, sweeping them and breaking bone in one powerful attack.

Spinning on his heel and igniting his sabers in the same moment, he sent his staff hissing through the air like a red buzzsaw, severing an arm as the monster slid to the side on wounded legs, trying to dodge and only managing to survive the attack. At least for a moment, before he recalled the weapon to him, and it _melted_ through the monster on its path.

"Forgive me, I didn't check the rank of the Grimm before I attacked." He nodded, accepting the apology on its face, and she added in a more jovial tone, "But I would say that was an impressive start to the test. Would you not?"

"Test is just to get the Relics." He pointed out quietly, using the Force to clean his staff in a burst of fur, bone shards and ichor in a _whump_ of pressure. Smiling, he offered a hand to her, "Though I do agree we did well… Shall I clean off your arm?"

"Hm?" She glanced to her swordhand and grimaced, noticing only now the same mess as had coated one side of his staff covering the top of her arm. "Ah, I see… A combat hazard of fighting the Grimm, I suppose."

Lost in the fight, she'd not notice, likely because it wasn't important at the time. Accepting his offer, she held her hand out and he took it, channeling the Force around her and between the mess of Grimm and her arm before hurling it up and to the side with a _whump_. Impressed, she turned her arm over in front of her and hummed, giving him a look and nod before he stepped past her.

"Now," he grunted, "which way to find the Relics, do you think?"

They ran into several small packs of Grimm like those, from Ursai and Beowolves to Creeps and even juvenile Nevermore swarms that tried to peck their eyes out. Nothing problematic came, though, and they made good time in their exploration as a result. From the early morning launch to noon, they walked, fought, snuck and sometimes even talked idly when it was safe to. It was enjoyable, if he was honest, just talking idly with someone that didn't dwell on what had happened to him, or ask about it, instead seeming to respect his privacy completely and not prying.

"So you're _not_ Atlesian?" He finally asked, pushing a branch crossing their path out of the way gently, so as not to damage the leaves or the tree unduly.

"Ah, no." She laughed quietly, hand covering her mouth again as she ducked under his arm and the branch both. Watching the path forward and only raising her voice the fraction needed to compensate for him being behind her, she continued. "No, Jaune, I'm Mistralian, of the Nikos family line. A tournament fighter, over there."

"I would bet a pretty penny that you did fairly well." He guessed, the woman's emotions _shifting_ for a moment, the ripples barely discernible but easily read when they were the only ones in the waters for him to feel. From calm and comfortable to tense and anxious for a moment, before snapping back to the former.

"I did fairly well, yes." She nodded simply, giving him a searching look over a shoulder and adding, "I came here for a… Change of pace, you could say. In Mistral, my names are known, my personal one and surname both. I hoped here would be different, and in most cases was disappointed. You, though, have not disappointed me. Thank you for that, even if it was unintended"

"I see." He could sympathise with the plight and decision, more than others maybe. Many looked at him and saw the story first, the power second, and Jaune somewhere else further down the line yet. Unsure now of what to say, he simply gestured ahead of them with an awkward wave that earned an amused smile, "Shall we?"

"We shall." She nodded, leading him now for her turn on point, shield ready to snap up at the barest hint of danger.

She certainly was an odd one, and he'd need to look her up later. Find out what was _really_ going on with her, if he could manage it. A good distraction from Ozpin's strangeness, he decided, staff in hand as he followed her.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

"I see ruins ahead, and people waiting there." He called out after another hour's journey, stopping at the edge of a wide, clear swathe of grass that stretched for at least a hundred yards from where he stood opposite the ruins, and twenty yards wide from the middle. Turning to look at the only mildly worn woman, he added with a wide, satisfied smile. "I believe we've finally found what we're looking for, Pyr."

"Then let's collect our relic, so we can head back." She suggested, stepping past him and out of the cool, ever present shade they'd been under for their trek and into the warm sun of early afternoon. "It's been several hours. I wonder where everyone else is? We're missing several people…"

"Perhaps they came and left, or haven't come yet." He suggested, knowing for _some_ the truth would be rather more unfortunate. The Mistralian must have too, for she fell silent and still, her emotions tinging the Force around her dark. Gently, he laid a hand on her shoulder and added, "Don't dwell on others you can't help. Focus on the now, and-"

"Nora!" He blinked, looking a couple feet past the woman who turned to follow his gaze, watching an Ursa limp weakly out of the trees and collapse, a woman rolling off its back and coming up in a 'T' shaped pose with a grin while another man rushed to catch up with her, panting, "Never. Again. Nora."

"I mean, it's broken, Renny. I can't ride a broken Ursa, can I?" He groaned and shook his head, and the woman glanced ahead of them. "Oh! The things!"

"Nora, don't- And she's gone again." The man sighed, straightened, and then gave them a nod before rushing off after her with an angry yell of, "Nora!"

"They seem... Energetic, to say the least." Pyrrha observed, head tilted curiously as she lead him through the clearing.

"Hm." He nodded but followed silently, watching either side of the clearing as they walked towards the ruins in case any Grimm were attracted by the noise. Or the aggravation the blonde seemed to feel, judging by the _literal_ explosion of fire that lit her up. Sensing movement high above he blinked and turned, looking up at the familiar presence, "Ruby Rose?"

For a moment, all he saw was the lazily circling Giant Nevermore - which Pyrrha saw too, giving up a warning cry for the others - before he saw the specks on it. Red and white, hanging onto it desperately like ticks on the side of a massive animal. Suddenly, something must have happened, for the red one slipped off and down, falling away rapidly. His eyes widened as he connected the dots and slammed his saber into its sheath, reaching out towards the girl with his hands and the Force both.

"Jaune, what are you-"

"Silence, please, I have to focus or she could die." She was spinning now, trying to control her fall with her scythe and failing for some reason. He felt shame from Pyrrha and chided himself, but could not do anything for it at the moment.

Instead he took a breath and let the Force flow through him, reaching out to the spinning, flailing girl as panic set in. Thirty feet from the ground, he began to slow her descent, wary of _stopping_ her and turning her insides into Ruby jam. Instead he slowed her steadily and repeatedly, until she finally, more gently, thumped on the ground with a huff and muted whine of bruises taken.

"Ow…" She rolled onto her side and blinked up at him, "Oh hi, Jaune."

"Hi, Ruby." He looked up at the circling Nevermore, kicking side to side haphazardly, and sighed. When he looked back to the girl, she was standing on wobbly legs and smiling sheepishly as he asked, "I suppose your partner is on the big, angry, Grimm bird?"

"M-Maybe..." His brow rose in disbelief and feigned judgement and she waved her hands in front of her anxiously, like she was trying to _swat_ his concerns away. "Weiss just… Has to figure out a way down, like I did."

"You figured out _nothing_. If I had not caught you, you would have been a smear on the ground." He pointed out dryly, watching the bird continue circling and trying to toss the white-dressed girl off with every turn.

"B-But you _did_ catch me!" She pointed out with a weak, nervous grin, pointing a finger at him like she'd caught him out. When he elected not to respond, instead simply crossing his arms, she nodded in victory and simply added, "She'll be fine."

"Or she'll fall, hoping I'll catch her like I caught you." He offered, watching the little white speck do _exactly_ that, angling towards their cluster of bright colors like a target. Which, set against the unending greens of the forest, was a smart enough decision in the end, he supposed. "Son of a Grimm… Pyr, will you and Ruby collect our relic while _I_ collect Ruby's partner?"

"I don't mind." She nodded, turning and leading the nervous little Rose towards the relic site.

Catching Weiss was merely an act of repetition, but one that he got halfway through before realizing the Nevermore wasn't _distracted_ anymore. Now it didn't have a girl sized hijacker hanging onto it, its circling became more gentle, and its shrieks less _annoyed_ and more _predatory_.

"Thank you, Jaune Arc, right?" The pale, small woman grunted when he caught her in his arms like a knight might a princess and knelt, letting her stand and dust herself off primly. He nodded and rose, opening his mouth to explain the situation, but she was already speaking again. "I read about your story in Atlas, a year back. You're impressively powerful, and strong willed to have-"

"The Nevermore is screeching for more Grimm, Weiss." He pointed out, pointing a finger towards the heavens and the circling creature with an exasperated sigh. The woman blinked and nodded, flushing slightly as she did. He chalked the mistake up to adrenaline, something Instructor had told him about a dozen times in training, and then moved on without comment. "We need to form up with the others, decide on a course of combat action ahead of the Grimm arriving."

"We should run, head for the extraction point." She argued quickly, turning and walking quickly with him towards the others, all of whom were watching the Nevermore overhead warily. "Killing the Grimm isn't our job, just getting the relics is."

"If we run, we have to fight in the _forest_." He pointed out simply, adding after a second to see if she would argue that, "And if too many come, a Bullhead will have difficulty landing on _trees_."

She didn't argue and, together, they walked as quickly as they could without draining their stamina to the others. Trying to make a plan would be arduous, with so many people he barely knew and so many weapons he didn't know _at all_. But Instructor had made him learn to plan on the spot, with what he had, and he wasn't about to fail his first live fire test. That would just be… Disappointing.

"Can any of you kill the Nevermore?" He asked as soon as they reached the grip, pointing up at it with a long finger. "Because it's calling Grimm to it right now, and in a minute it will start strafing us with feathers and they'll run into the clearing and see us."

"I can _hit_ it, yeah." Ruby shrugged, the others exchanging glances with each other and the Grimm, circling high above and shrieking once again. "But at that range, even my armor piercing rounds won't punch through. I'm sorry."

"Shotguns and flares, too short range." The blonde woman said with a hand on a cocked hip, lavender eyes watching the Grimm detachedly. As if in after thought, she waved a hand between herself and the silent, dark-clothed woman just behind her and added, "I'm Yang, by the way. This here's Blakey, and she uses a pistol. So she won't be all that much help with it up _there_ either."

"A grenade launcher and personal defence weapons." He noted, not even _asking_ the other two about their ability to reach it. Those weapons wouldn't be able to do anything until it was grounded. "I know your names, Nora and Renny, right? I'm Jaune Arc."

"It's just-"

"Don't interrupt him, Renny. He's planning~" Nora grinned, wrapping one arm around her friend's shoulders and pulling him against her shoulder, here grenade launched held hanging towards the ground in one hand. "If you can get it down, I can smash it."

"Call me Ren, please." He said anyway, the girl pouting bubt not countermanding what he said.

"All right." He knew his partner's weapon couldn't do it either, and so he turned to Weiss who bowed her head in shame, hand tightening on her rapier as she forced out, "I am not suited for this. My Glyphs can support people, but I don't have anything that would help against a Giant Nevermore."

"I'll ground it when it comes in to attack, then." He said simply, turning without waiting for an argument to be made and looking up at where the Relics had been stored. "Weiss, you said that your Glyph ability could support people?"

"Yes."

"Ruby and Weiss, get up on the raised platform. Use the high ground advantage to support all sides of the fight." Her rifle would make quick work of Grimm coming in, and _whatever_ Weiss could do to support them, it would make the fight easier and not spread out their formation too much. "Nora, you can deal a lot of damage? You mentioned smashing, so I'm assuming you're good in melee too?"

"Yep!" With a flick her handle slid back and elongated, a massive war hammer taking form, the heavy head thudding against the ground while the woman leaned a foot on it. Ren seemed to see his chance, and edged a bit away from her, closer to Blake beside Yang. Grinning, the exuberant ginger bragged, "I can smash just 'bout anything with my baby here."

"Pyrrha, you and her are our front line until I ground the Nevermore, and I'll join you then. You take center rank. Good?" The Mistralian nodded simply, understanding without a need for explanation why she'd be in their center line. "Yang, what can you do? You mentioned shotgun?"

"I'm a brawler, my gauntlets are chambered to fire red Dust flares for mid range and buckshot for close." Almost as though to demonstrate, she slammed her fists forward in a pantomime of how he supposed she fought, bouncing on her feet and cocking the weapons like a shotgun. "Want me up front?"

"Yes, yes I do." She nodded and, finally, he turned to the last two. Blake and Ren exchanged looks, holding their weapons slightly to the side and turned so he could see them, in an effort to help him plan he guessed. "I'm assuming you two are more… Support fighters? Get in, deal damage, get away kind of situation?"

"Yes." They chorused, both quieter than any of the others. And both, he noted, reeked of a kind of calm that came from experience taking orders.

"Then take second line, in between Weiss and Ruby's and the front." Where they could intercept any Grimm that got through, but also flash into the fight to help wherever a problem arose. "Does anyone have any problem with what I have planned out? Any at all? Speak now, if you do, or-"

Overhead, the Nevermore shrieked, and he grimaced, sighing and finishing, "Speak now, because in a few minutes we won't have time for it."

No one voiced a complaint and, at his nod, they all began to file up the steps, Jaune leading the smallest women up to the platform and sitting to meditate. To focus his Semblance, he answered when Weiss asked what he was doing, and after that only silence and shrieking could be heard while he let himself drift in the ocean of the Force. They didn't have much time before he heard the Pyrrha call out.

"Feathers!" She warned, and true enough he opened his eyes and deflected one up and behind him, so the quill cast him in shade. A dark shadow passed over them as the Grimm made its pass and turned to circle around and come back.

Ahead of them, past the lined up initiates on the stairs, he heard the baying and roaring of Grimm. Not too many to count or discern, but enough that they would all have a hard fight ahead of them. With a small grin, he rolled his neck until it popped and stood, Force flowing down his arms.

"Let's do this, then…"

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**Will craft Nex :**_

**Yeah, I elected not to do that. The sister, excepting Saphron obviously, aren't that important to this stage of the story. However, I am truly grateful for your confidence in my abilities. **

_**Alex Sakurai :**_

**About **_**one**_ **of those abilities… Hinted at in this chapter. Maybe be able to spot it, if you look close. XD**

_**Captain Dick Scratcher : **_

**Sorry, spoilers. I can't elaborate on that. XD**

_**Sentinal Slice :**_

**His Semblance will be a *minute*, but it will show eventually. And likely be different, possibly. Or be **_**used**_ **differently. **

_**Void Death's Harbinger : **_

**Yep. **

**You and two others always sodding guess what I plan on doing the **_**chapter**_ **before I ruddy do it. XD**

**Rood. **

_**Lord owl :**_

**His father unlocked it in Chapter Four, I believe, so he'd pass Hunter requirements. **

_**Wyatt Moore :**_

**Oh you love me.**

_**Bukkake No Jutsu :**_

**Making? No. Maybe tweaking at some point? Maaaaybe. **

_**Talon Ibn La Ahad :**_

**I WILL BAN YOUR ASS FROM PREDICTIONS I SWEAR TO OUM- **

**Sorry, sorry. I shouldn't yell. XD**

**Yeah, I figured Saphron would make a good sacrifice to show the stakes of Remnant in this story. Jaune hurling Force powers is not a catch all, key to the kingdom, hook into winning a fight. Collateral damage is **_**always**_ **possible, and he's unable to keep his Aura up and use the Force at the same time even. So using it offers a lot of problems, for himself and those around him, that he is aware of and works round. As well as problems he is **_**not**_ **aware of.**

**And yes, he harnessed lightning through raw passion. But it didn't do much more than spark on him as the Force moved. It's not potent enough or controlled enough to be useful in fighting, yet. I can't give him **_**all**_ **the powers at the start or he won't grow anywhere. XD**

**Now, who do you think will be Force Sensitive?**

_**Adislt :**_

**He senses something, here, but has **_**no**_ **idea what it could be. **


	7. Chapter 7

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

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_**If you want to be on the Supporter list, PM one of us for details or join our discord. Server ,.for details. Hope you enjoy reading my stories, and remember to post a Review/Comment to let me know what you liked and didn't.**_

_**So, Fanfiction will not let me link to discord. So, I apologize to every single FF reader for this, but please PM me for a join link. And please consider doing so, I enjoy chatting with you lot. On AO3, the link is viable : **__** /2UZncAm**_

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_**Betas for this story so far : Luna**_

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

Yang leapt high and cried out, driving a fist down and into an Ursa, ending its charge in a somersault that signalled its demise and that of a Creep that tried to scurry under it and was crushed by its weight. Another leapt for the blonde's side and was blown away by a round from Blake's sidearm, before she turned it on four more in turn, throwing them back into the frothing hordes of Grimm beyond their battleline before they could leap on her or Nora on her left side. Another Ursa lumbered towards her and she ducked, snapping a following, buckshot-backed fist into its knee and driving it onto its side, another burst of buckshot from her other gauntlet ripping into its skull before it could react. Turning, the woman ducked a clawed swipe aimed for her chest and lashed out in a bone shattering kick, cracking its ribs before a fist backed by fire blew its head, too, off entirely.

Beside her, Pyrrha danced back and forward, in and out of reach from Ursa to Beowolf both, and around the Creeps that sought to grip her thighs and slow her. Her sword and shield both flashed, bronze light in the darkness around her, in elegant, artistic lines through the air. Each flick, each thrust, each slash and cut crippling Grimm she could not kill outright without slowing and risking a strike, and slaughtering those she could with ruthless efficiency. Back and behind her, Ren sprayed short and wide lines of fire into Grimm, backing the Mistralian champion's wounding blows with his own and doing the same for Yang, peppering lighter Grimm while she handled the heaviest of them.

On Yang's other side, Nora alternated between wide swings that crushed Grimm and hurled them back into their fellows to devastating effect, and launching grenades between punishing punches and kicks that crushed the Grimm underfoot and fist easily enough. The grenades flew high and far, blasting rock, dirt and Grimm shards into the air and the Grimm both, wherever they were foolish enough to cluster. Nora did just that and a Beowolf leapt for her, before a high caliber round from Ruby's rifle blew its arm off and a Glyph _crushed_ it to the ground under its own, gravity intensified weight.

The smaller, younger woman turned, snapping rounds off into lighter armored Grimm wherever she saw them. Her partner matched her, Glyphs springing to life to shift the other fighters' positions and both crushing and hurling Grimm aside wherever she thought necessary. High above, the Nevermore screeched and reared back, unleashing a tidal wave of massive quills on the battle below. Some skewered Grimm on the path to their battle line, but others flew straight, threatening them all.

Without ever looking up and breaking his concentration, the Force warrior kneeling on the stone held a hand out, redirecting them dozens of massive quills down sharper, impacting ahead of the fighting line more safely or deflecting them to the side, into the forest. Rising, he reached out for the Nevermore before it could fly up and away, to come around in another pass and pass even _further_ beyond his range of ability.

"I thought the rocks would be a challenge…" He murmured, Ruby beside him sparing him a curious glance he quickly waved off with a hand. With a grunt, he reached out and up, eyes rolling back into his head as he let his very _sight_ fade into the Force alone, casting the world around him in a fiery tempest of lights and darks of every description. The Grimm shrieked and colored the Force around it with panic as he tried to _wrench_ its wing joints to either side and break them, breaking away from his control in a brief moment with a force on the young Force user like a rope pulled taut and snapped, the blond staggering forward and up awkwardly. "Damn it!"

"What's wrong, Jaune?" Ruby asked, pausing to snap a shot off over her sister's head, carving through an Ursa's shoulder to stagger it back before it could get an attack in. Turning to him again, she reminded him in an ever-more urgent voice, "You said you could stop it. A-And it's coming around for another pass, Jaune."

"I know, I know. I need a way to get closer, it's too high up for me to reach and moving… I don't have time to meditate and extend my ranger." And he needed an idea, grimacing and watching the Grimm circle, body flush with the Force enough to _hurt_ and eyes aching from something he couldn't place.

Finally, he looked across the battle line and blinked, shouting at the young Schnee where she stood searching for her next target as an idea flared to life in his mind, "Weiss, can you get one of its quills for me and get it up here?"

"Yes, but why on Remnant do you need me to get a quill up there for you?" The Schnee didn't wait for his answer, though, a black glyph flickering above one and sending it hurling through the air, several white ones flickering and fading to slow it before it crashed into the stone and, panting and sweating, she turned to him, "Now w-what do you need this for?"

"I'm going to ride the feather up into the air, and leap to the Nevermore." _Both_ of the young woman's eyebrows rose and he waved her off, asking simply, "Can you do it? It just needs to get within a hundred feet or so."

"I… Suppose so, perhaps if I can... Let me think for a moment." She turned, looking up behind them, and then back towards the fighting line, searching for something. Nodding, she turned back and explained, "I need something elastic enough to attach to those columns, the feather can sit on that while I aim and a glyph should more than do to hold it. You ride it up and deal with the Nevermore, and all should resolve itself."

"Sensing a but there…"

"..._But_, the only thing here usable for that I am aware of is Blake's ribbon, and Ren will have to replace Nora or Yang in the line to secure the other end." She glanced to Ruby and, with a grimace, added, "Unless you can?"

"I can." Ruby nodded, standing and inverting her scythe, giving the young woman a curt nod and a wide, beaming smile, "See ya later, _partner_!"

"You insufferable, juvenile- This is _not_ the time for you asinine little assertions about our relationship, or delusions that we-" The young Rose shot off with a flurry of petals in her wake before the Schnee could finish, the girl half-shouting in distaste, "And we are _not_ partners, you-you childish little cretin!"

The girl landed behind Nora and ducked past her, spinning like a twister through the Grimm and dismembering all those in reach. She and Nora fought together for a moment before the ginger backed out, batted away a pursuing Grimm, and rushed to Blake's side. Another pause as she explained the situation happened then, and the two rushed to them as another, fresh pack of Beowolves rushed into the clearing, lured by the Nevermore's cries and the sounds of fighting both.

Without a word for him, the two parted, Blake handing her weapon off to the hammer wielding woman to wrap around a pillar of stone while she ran across to another of the few that were sturdy looking enough to warrant this kind of insane idea. Using the Force to pull the ribbon taut with one hand and lifting the quilled feather with another, Jaune held it against the ribbon until Weiss' glyph pinned it in place. At a curt nod, sweat beading on the girl's brow while her rapier trembled in his hand, he climbed onto the feather and laid across it, saber held in one hand while the other gripped the thick stem of the feather.

"Whenever you're-ready, Arc." Weiss grunted from behind him, the blonde warrior sparing her a glance to nod. "If this k-kills you, I don't want to hear a t-thing. Understand?"

"Fire, Weiss." He said by way of answer, the young woman more than happy to oblige. And, from what he could tell by how she _collapsed_ to the stone, unable to hold it any long.

Like an arrow shot from a bow, he soared high into the air on an intercept course with the Nevermore, the wind ripping at him as he went. Using his own strength and the Force both, he held fast, finally reaching the apex of his arc _high_ above the Nevermore and feeling gravity try and hurl him further still. This time, he let inertia do its work, and soard up into the air over the feather. Using the Force instead of his eyes, long since squeezed shut against the wind, he felt out the presence of the Nevermore and _hurled_ himself towards it. Only when he was close did he squint his eyes open to see, through eyes blurred by wind-whipped tears, his hand igniting his saber as he sailed past the monster, who shrieked upon seeing him.

A sound that ended as, arm outstretched, he let inertia and gravity carve the hissing end of his weapon through its skull deep enough for the top to entirely separate. Robbed of life and mind both, the Grimm began to fall, and he went with it, albeit further out and towards the forest. He was surprised when he felt a tug on his back _yank_ him towards the battle and turned. Again he felt a tug, a little black glyph flickering on his chest just below his chin.

Weiss' glyphs steered and the Force slowed him until, rolling and grunting with the impact - and ignoring the _flare_ of pain all along his back besides - he came to a stop behind the fighting line and turned. A Beowolf's arm flew back as he leapt and his saber cut, its head following a moment after before with a shout he _blasted_ the Grimm away in a wide cone ahead of them. His team launched into combat without hesitation, leaping onto Grimm like warriors of old, pinning them under heels and beheading, crushing or gunning them down in turn, turning their weapons on their fellows as soon as their targets died. Now free of the bestial reinforcements that had been called before, or aerial assault from their caller for that matter, they pushed forward and through, cutting apart and down and Grimm they came across.

Five more minutes, and a pair of disparate Grimm packs later, they finally came to a panting, sweating end of their battle.

"So, what," Ruby began, kneeling on the ground and sucking air between her words, "do we do now? I-I think we passed Initiation, that was a-a lot of Grimm."

"Yes, and we slew them easily and admirably enough to satisfy anyone who could possibly have the right to voice words on the matter." Pyrrha complimented, standing straighter than anyone else beside a fallen Ursa, the only sign of the exhaustion he _sensed_ being her leaning on her spear. A spear which, he noted knowing, had been a _sword_ moments prior. "You had some good plans, Jaune."

"Always been quick on my feet." He shrugged, rolling the soreness out of his shoulder and, safe now, focusing his Aura into soothing the mild aches and pains. Raising his voice, he called out, "Anyone hurt? Everyone okay?"

There were cuts and bruises among most of them, himself included, but they were healing under their Aura already so he let it be. Satisfied and bored, now, waiting for their pickup or more Grimm, they began to break apart and wander the grass fields, away from the fighting place if only to avoid the _smoke_. Smoke that, no doubt, would be seen by the Beacon observers watching them, who would be on their way here even now to see _what_ could _possibly_ have happened here.

Assuming they hadn't been _watching_ them the whole time, that was.

Sighing, Jaune sat against a tree with his legs folded under him and his hood drawn, watching the sky while he rested and murmuring, "Well. At least _this_ didn't end up with someone dismembered…"

"Have you fought the Grimm often?" Pyrrha asked, standing and leaning against the tree behind him, her spear in her hand while she watched the woods warily for both their sakes. In the moment before he could answer, she rushed to add, as though worried he would retort sharply, "You mentioned 'this time' with significance, which implies other times, is the only reason I ask. You don't need to discuss it, though, if it upsets you."

"I see." Was that concern for him, or pragmatism to avoid upsetting him and drawing black, fur laden attention, he was getting from her? After a moment he dismissed the suspicion and shrugged simply, "You said you know about me from the news, right?" She nodded and he went on, "Then you know I lived out on the Frontier, and fought Grimm that attacked my settlement. I also rangered in the woods, hunting Grimm, though, and you might not have known _that_ from the news."

"I did not, no, and… Given my background, I don't put much stock in what news and journalists like to peddle as fact." He gave her a sidelong glance, one brow raised, and she shrugged noncommittally when he paused and she turned to look at him, "I'm a champion fighter, in Mistral, and known throughout the Kingdoms, though I do not _enjoy_ it being dwelt on. I experienced my share of tabloids and articles, Jaune."

"I can see that, yeah." He nodded, offering her a small smile, "Tell you what, Pyrrha. You don't hold _my_ tabloids against _me_, and I won't hold _yours_ against _you_ either. Deal?"

"_That_ is a deal I can certainly accept, yes." He offered a hand, tapping the outside of her thigh for her attention, the woman giving it a look before smiling and taking it, shaking it gently with a small laugh that she demurely hid behind the haft of her spear. Turning back, she added in a quiet tone, "I'm glad that we all survived the battle with the Grimm. Against a Nevermore of that size, if some of us had died here… That would have been normal, no?"

"It would have been." He agreed quietly, eyeing the man-sized feathers it had launched at them three times in an effort to kill them. "But my Semblance let me protect us from them, and everyone was _more_ than capable of killing the Grimm it summoned with its… Incessant shrieking."

"Indeed. They are all skilled combatants, and it was an absolute pleasure to fight with them and you alike." She turned at a low thrum, looking up as a trio of small, Beacon patterned Bullheads loomed down from the cliffs and circled the wide clearing for a place to land. A place that was conspicuously easy for them to find, given the _clearness_ of the area. "It appears our ride has arrived, for our return journey."

It had certainly taken them long enough, somehow allowing their _entire_ battle against a small hoard of likely nearing a hundred leser Grimm and one superior, flying one. He didn't voice the complaint - or the suspicions behind it, for that matter, and there were plenty of those to be certain - to his partner as he stood, instead giving her a small smile and then scanning the various pieces of bone plating for anything interesting.

Seeing nothing worth looking at, he remarked dryly, "Well, let's not keep them waiting. They might decide to leave us here, and I am _far_ too done with Grimm for the day to let that happen. Shall we, Pyrrha?"

"Of course." She nodded, adding in a quieter tone, "And… Call me 'Pyr', please. I rather liked the nickname when you said it previous."

The ride back was… A surprisingly muted affair, really, the group of children still impossibly anxious over whether they would pass the tests they'd been put through well enough. He knew, of course, that they had. If only because their only objective had been accomplished, unless you counted _not dying_ as part of the test. Which they'd still accomplished, so the addition didn't make much difference to him.

'_Thinking in circles gets you nowhere but dizzy, Jaune.'_ He chided himself, turning back to his partner when he sensed her gaze on him and offering her a small nod that she returned, turning to listen politely to Nora beside her rattling off a story about her part of Initiation. '_Energetic, but tolerable. If only for the amusement.'_

Content, he let his eyes close and the Force take him where it would while they journeyed back to Beacon.

"Your formation was rushed, and had holes in it, but… Given the frankly rushed nature of the conflict at hand, _and_ the lack of a true answer to the Giant Nevermore besides, I don't see any reason to belabor the strategies you used. You will have classes for that soon enough, in any event." The Headmistress was as chilly and beautiful as he remembered, if in that more intimidating and powerful kind of way that belied it, as he remembered. "Though I _will_ endeavor to get across the need for anti-air stratagems that _don't_ include flinging yourself into said air to get at the target."

All she got for _that_ was awkward snicker, that seemed to aggravate her to no end, from the more, er, _energetic_ of their group.

"Honestly, the nerve of you all… A genuine shame you didn't take a few licks to teach you some _sense_." Though he caught her probing, worried gazes as they assembled at the docks for 'debrief' upon their return. Green eyes flicked across each of them inspectingly, looking for wounds not yet healed by Aura. Which kind of deflated the edge her tone held as she continued in as blaise a fashion as she could manage, "Though in future, and I _stress this_ more than you might hear, I should note that _retreat_ is always an option."

"If we'd done that, we were worried the Grimm would pursue us into the woods and hit us from every angle where we couldn't maneuver." He pointed out, more than happy to force her attention onto him instead of Ruby, who had started squirming anxiously the _moment_ the Headmistress turned glinting green eyes on her. She turned to him and, hedging his bets, he added further, "We also figured the Nevermore would sense us by our anxiety when we _did_ get caught out, or just anxiety at the risk _of_ getting caught, and fire on us where we couldn't see it to dodge or know it was coming."

"Only a fool would give up all their advantages in combat." Pyrrha, saint that she was, added from beside him. She didn't _look_ at the older Huntress, staring straight ahead instead like she was in the military, but he sensed her the Force reverberate with satisfaction at… Something. "So rather than run, pray to the Gods that we could outpace them, and in all likelihood be beset upon in disadvantageous terrain, we held _advantageous_ terrain and took the attack."

"It was still foolish. Especially as inexperienced in combating the Grimm as you all-"

"I'm sorry, Headmistress, but _I_ am pretty experienced in fighting Grimm." And he wasn't even going to _let her_ act like he didn't. He was trained to be calm and accepting of whatever came, and to avoid vapid pridefulness, of course. But in the same vein, he was trained to take _proper_ pride in his skills and abilities. "I trained to fight them for years, in the field, and spent the last year in Ansel training and rangering in the woods. I fought plenty of Grimm in that time, and knew good terrain when I saw it."

A bit more lie in his words than he _enjoyed_ but it did the trick, the woman grimacing but nodding curtly, "I disapprove of you interrupting me, but… A fair point nonetheless. And since it was _your_ plan, I suppose credit is due for deferring to a more experienced compatriot at the scene."

"Thank you, Ma'am, and I'm sorry for-"

"Which means the reprimand lies with you as well for the _lunacy_ of hurling yourself into the air in the hopes of killing the Nevermore. What if your weapon had _not_ pierced its armor?" She cut in, the blonde's mouth _clicking_ shut while those around him inched away from him. Or more accurately, her ire _at_ him. Even Pyrrha took the smallest hair's breadth away from him, and ignored the pointed look her sent her way for it.

'_It's treason then,eh, Pyr?'_ He grimaced, but turned back to the expectant, older woman with a small sigh, "Respectfully, Ma'am, there's almost nothing that my saber can't cut through. It's… Special, like that."

"I've heard that song and dance _many_ times, Mister Arc." She chided, shaking her head and sighing gently, "Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer, Mister Arc. Never, ever forget that. The moment you are comfortable is the moment you just may lose a life. Be it yours, or those around you or under your care."

"As you say, Headmistress." The point didn't bare arguin, really, and he wasn't in the mood for it even if he _could_ find a reason to try. Fighting Grimm was fun, flying back with _three_ excited chatterboxes was distinctly less so. "What else is needed, here, Ma'am? I'm sure we _all_ would enjoy even a brief rest."

"The cafeteria is down the hall, as you went to get to the auditorium previous, but further still and in the next building." She turned, directing their attention from the docks - where they had landed today and the day before both - past one massive building where they'd slept the night before to another, this one with entire walls made if tall windows. "You are among the last to find a Relic location and be picked up, so I suggest hurrying along so you may eat while team assignments and naming conventions."

"_A_ Relic location." Ruby murmured, loud enough for the question to be heard even if she still shied away from the Headmistress' sharp, questioning gaze. Standing her ground as much as she seemed willing to, the youngest of the group explained, "Y-You said it like there were other locations, Headmistress. Were there?"

"Of course. With the disparate spreading of students across the Initiation grounds, there were three separate locations to ensure the forty or so hopeful partner pairs actually had enough Relics to _recover_." Though, judging by the three exhausted looking children across the way waiting wit their luggage and _emanating_ sadness into the Force around them, not all had managed to get their Relics after all. The Headmistress stepped into his line of sight and smiled thinly, "Not all who venture gain, young man. They may try again next year, and likely will."

"I, uh, yeah." He hadn't _meant_ to be staring at them, even if he'd known that they were too distracted and wrapped up in their own heads - deservedly - at the moment to really notice anything. For the woman's benefit, he shrugged and asked, "You mentioned food?"

"I did, Yes. Hurry along, now, the team naming ceremony will be conducted inside an hour or two." She waved a hand for him to head along and he did, walking with his group towards the cafeteria while the more excitable team members talked.

Pushing open the great doors into the cafeteria, they were met with a _wall_ of sound and emotion, students celebrating now that they were together and being fed. Being actually _hosted_ like this, with hot food and a bustling staff tending to injuries and feeding them luxuries, told the students there they'd passed. Or, maybe, one of the disparate and celebrating groups had been told as much and the celebration _they _started had carried on and welcomed more students coming in.

That they'd seen rejects - and only _three of them_ at that, which spelled something bad out plainly given the _even numbered_ groups they were placed in - outside with their things only added to the certainty.

"Pancakes!" He flinched, before he felt an arm around his shoulders, the ginger in their group tugging him and his partner along excitedly. All the thile, rattling in his ear, "Renny makes the _best_ pancakes, you know. He has this recipe with acorns and stuff that is just straight out to _kill_ for!"

"I-Is the saying not 'to die for', Nora?" Pyrrha managed to get out, between the girl's excited giggles and the rest of the noise around them.

"Not when I'm involved it isn't." She grinned and shrugged, letting them go finally to grab them all plates while the others caught up. Shoving one into each of their hands, and keeping _two_ for herself, she crowed, "Come _on_ guys! Let's eat! Nothing like sweet pancakes after a fun day of playing with Grimm."

"Don't you mean-"

"She doesn't." Ren cut in gently, smiling like a man with the patience of a saint and experience with it being _tested_. Taking one of her plates, he started heaping up pancakes for her and added, "Nora always says what she means."

"Yep!" She bounced on her heels, mind clear of any less than innocent thoughts that _might_ have crossed the minds of adrenaline fueled teenagers around them at that, and aggressively - somehow - handed off her plate when Ren reached for it. "Bananas! Ren, look, there's-"

"I know."

"And strawberries!"

"I love strawberries!" Ruby chimed in, sliding past him and grabbing the plate Ren offered her without even sparing her a glance, grabbing the metal spoon in the big bowl of them and _heaping_ a pile on her plate. "They're so sweet and yummy. Oh! Strawberry pancakes?! Those _exist_?!"

Yet again a cute young woman started bouncing early on her feet, and yet again he sensed the attention of hormonal youths of both genders and species focusing on them. This time, though, he turned and met their gazes, sending an eerie sensation of foreboding through the Force around him. Their minds weren't built to discern the Force, of course, but they still _felt_ his foreboding, Force backed threat of nondescript suffering and pain if they kept trying to peek up his team member's skirts. To them, no doubt, it was like ice had lodged itself in their stomachs, along with the threat of a slow and painful death the only kind of which they could anticipate from very specific, rare Grimm.

Needless to say, if there _were_ any peeks between the folds of Ruby's skirt, or up Pyrrha's or Nora's, none saw it.

"What?" He asked when he turned back and caught Pyrrha watching him, holding a plate twice the size of a normal one and packed full of pancakes, sausage and bacon. He took the offered meal and, when she didn't respond, asled, "Why are you staring, Pyr?"

"You're protective of the girls." She observed simply, trailing behind the rest of their loud group as Nora or Ruby led them to somewhere to sit, towards the back of the room near the door. Furthest away from the food, too, but that was probably why it was _empty_. "I can see it, in the way you keep glaring at anyone that looks our way. There's a heat there."

"I have seven sisters. Comes naturally to me, I guess." He shrugged, letting them all choose their seats ahead of joining them and adding in a lower tone, to not interrupt Nora's excited 'Ursa taming' story retelling. He'd been there, for her arrival, but _apparently_ she'd sent the Grimm back into the forest with a wave of her hand and 'her mystical Nora-ness'. "Besides, I don't mind putting the fear of the Dark Side into these pathetic little tools if they think their hormones overrule you all's privacy."

"Aww, you are _so sweet_!" He blinked as an arm wrapped around his shoulders and he was pulled flush against soft skin, staring down into the rift between Yang's… Assets for a moment before pulling back while she sniggered, "Oh my, Birdboy, looks like _you_ are the pervert here~!"

"I am not!" He scowled, ignoring the sniggers across the table and raising a finger meaningfully, "And my name is _not_ 'Birdboy'. It's Jaune."

"Whatever you say, Birdboy." He groaned but the other blonde just laughed. A loud, boisterous sound that continued even when Jaune none-too-gently jabbed a fork down into his food to eat.

"What's the Dark Side?" Pyrrha asked when Yang had returned to teasing someone else - her sister, judging by the way the little brunette scrunched down and hid her face behind a hand while she ate - and they'd eaten a bit, since _both_ of them were more than hungry enough to put off any kind of chat for some food.

"You mentioned it in the same way one would 'put the fear of Oum' or the Grimm, or the Brothers." She answered when he gave her a curious look, the blonde chidin himself for the slip as soon as she said it. It must have shown on his face, for Pyrrha's eyes blinked wider and she held up a hand, awkwardly laughing and waving the question off, "I-It's none of my business, I suppose. If you would rather your privacy I won't mind, Jaune. I'm sorry."

"It's fine, Pyr, it's… Fine." He said, taking a couple pieces of syrupy pancake and using it like the biscuit to his sausage, chewing on it and grabbing a drink of water while he thought. First about whether or not to say anything, second about what _to_ say when he decided to. The better not to flare tensions early, and control what she knew and how she perceived it.

"Scooch." With a hand, he gestured for her to slide down a bit and she did, the blonde subtly moving the Force to direct attention away from himself with practiced ease when he saw the others start to turn to them. Now they were a bit further away, and his words would be lost in the sound of the cafeteria, he started to explain, "The Dark Side is half of the Force, which is- Which I believe, rather, to be an energy that suffuses life around us. The Dark Side is all about passion and emotion, and its counterpoint is about naturality and control, letting things be what they are and acceptance of them."

"So it's a religion?"

"Yeah." It worked as a description, anyway. "I use it to focus my Semblance, since it's… Mental, how mine works."

"I see." Her eyes flicked between hem and the space he'd put between himself and the others and she blinked, mouth forming a little 'o' of realization. "You do not wish the others to hear about this."

"No."

"May I ask why, or would that be… Insensitive?" The question was innocent, and posed with a fragility that made him wonder what she thought he'd _do_ to her for asking.

"Stop stressing out for no reason, Pyr." He rolled his eyes and sighed, the woman giving him a sidelong glance while he ripped his bacon into little strips and pitched them into his mouth, thinking up a good enough excuse not to want the terms spread around. "In my settlement, race and religion never mattered. Out here, though, it does. People get harassed and heckled just for having different kinds of ears, or a tail, or something."

Amber eyes flicked to his but returned to the others' conversation before he could meet them, and he sighed, adding in finish, "I don't want that kind of attention, you know? I'm here to learn to protect people, not… Put up with assholes that don't tolerate wrong-think about the gods, or whatever."

"I understand that, I suppose." She nodded, and through the Force he knew she didn't _really_ understand what he was on about, but sympathised with wanting to be left alone well enough to make up the difference. After a moment, she added, "Though, you should be open with your friends, in future. They will accept you, if they were ever your friends in the first. And better not to build on false pretenses."

With that, she turned back to her food and began eating, now content to ignore him entirely and leave him to his own thoughts. After a moment, and with a small shrug, he turned to his own food and let the matter lie. Instead, he was content to wait until, eventually, the naming ceremony came and he could see his new lodgings.

He wouldn't have to wait long for that, he was sure.

The naming ceremony was relatively simple and fast, enough so for no one to have much time to complain. They were gathered in the auditorium again, lined up in their teams - the obvious ones, of course, based on who picked similar pieces from the same locations - and told the order they'd be called in. Then they'd been filed to one side while other, older students came in to watch the ceremony quietly. It took less than half an hour, with only eleven new successful teams for the year formed. The number struck him as odd, though he knew there were other, lesser Academies and paths to being a Hunter.

The names themselves, though, struck him as even _odder_.

"Juniper is an… Acceptable enough designation." Pyrrha countered gently as they made their way to their dorms, dressed in Beacon uniforms now and sporting grey, Beacon issued and Hunter-suited backpacks full of their school supplies and changes of uniform. As well as their luggage, though _that_ had been heaped on a trolley Nora was pretending to be a horse pulling. "It's a… Strong name."

"It's a type of _berry_ and _tree_." He argued gently, smiling ever-so-slightly to show there was no heat meant in his words. The woman got the message and rolled her eyes in amusement, chuckling under her breath, and he added, "I just figured we'd get better names than _plants_, Pyr."

"A Juniper tree is beautiful and strong, and lives a long life." Ren offered in a sage way, a single hand raised, finger to the sky, as he spoke. In a way, Jaune decided, he reminded the young Force wielder of Instructor, albeit _far_ less sadistic. "Naming us after such a beautiful, strong tree is clearly the Headmaster's way of saying he has faith that this team will stand long and strong, as a beautiful display of the Academy's tutelage."

"They named us after _me_!" Ruby called, leading her team just behind them. Eyebrows raised, he turned his gaze on Ren, and the man shrugged simply.

"Ren doesn't have an answer to that one, I guess, Ruby." Jaune called back with a derisive little snort and shake of his head. After a minute, he sighed and wondered idly, "You think they let us change our team names if we ask nicely enough, Pyr?"

"What would you even _name_ our team?" She asked quietly, smiling but shaking her head. He shrugged and her eyes rolled, "Leave the name be, partner-mine. It's not so terrible, and were I to be frank, I prefer it to whatever other copper bottomed idea they might come up with to replace it."

"Fine, fine, since you like it so much." Again, she rolled her eyes at him, but he ignored her and flicked his eyes from one side of the hall to the other, and then looked to his Scroll to check while Ren tried to prevent Nora attempting to run Pyrrha down. Key word there being _tried_, of course, though the Mistralian ignored the little prod of the trolley's handle on her hip well enough. "Ah, here we are, guys. Time to decorate, I guess?"

Inside, the room was _relatively_ Spartan, considering Beacon's standing and the normal decor levels equally. Four simple enough looking beds, the nice headboards notwithstanding of course, with equally nice dressers to one side and bed-tables on the other. Two of the beds were lined against one wall to the left of the door, the other under the windows across the room from them. They were painted a nice red, with white trimmings and a muted, dark carpet over the floor that Jaune found appealing enough to tolerate. And a flick of the Force pulled the curtains closed, leaving the room in muted sunlight from outside, blocked mostly by the curtains now.

The third wall was divided, between a wide, oaken bookshelf and a large room with a heavy door that _screamed_ bathroom even for Jaune, who had spent so long under the mountain with his tiny little _thing_ pf a bathroom as to have forgotten the _concept_ of a grand thing like a sit-in tub until his return to Ansel. _His_ had been made of cheap iron mined in Ansel with wooden walls and floors for the most part from the forest around the settlement, after the renovations they'd done to _finally_ replace old and broken. This one, though, was normal porcelain, like any other bathroom in Vale could be expected to be. Against the wall the bathroom created, with their backs to the windows, were two sturdy, moderately large desks for working on, complete, even, with two small monitor screens they could hook their Scrolls to in order to make working a bit easier.

"It's spacious enough." Pyrrha was the one to comment, standing awkwardly and watching the other three mill about unsurely in the middle of the room. "So, hm, where, ah, where does everyone… Want to sleep?"

"Nora won't sleep without me nearby." Ren commented idly, Jaune's brows knitting at the statement. He turned to look at the man, mouth open to ask, and he explained in clear brief, "Frontier kids, Jaune. And wanderers, for most of that time, from place to place. I would rather _not_ get into it, but… We get anxious when we're apart, so-"

They were cut off by Nora, who picked up the nightstand and dresser between two of the beds, one under each arm. Face flat, she moved to the middle of the room and set them down, grabbing the beds and pulling them together without comment. With an amused, kind of resigned roll of his eyes, Ren turned to pick up the lighter end table and move it out and into the hall where they'd been told maintenance would pick up any unwanted furniture, sitting the extra dresser beside the bathroom door.

"I… Suppose that gives us the other beds, then." Pyrrha shrugged, reaching by Ren - who was unloading their stuff while Nora bounced on her half of the bed they'd made - to grab her suitcase and start unpacking. Hesitating, she asked, "Corner or between the beds, do you have a preference?"

"Do you?"

"Not truly, no."

"Then corner, if you really don't care." As far away as possible from Nora's constant energy, as much as he may have liked it. And he did enjoy it, but eventually it would tax him, and Ren seemed _more_ than happy to contend with it himself. She nodded without a question and, grabbing his stuff to unpack, he grunted a, "Thank you, Pyr."

"Of course, Birdboy." She smirked and he groaned loudly, unbuttoning his blazer and grabbing a change of clothes. It was late enough, after all, to get some rest.

Tomorrow would be the start of actual _classes_ after all.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**Void Death's Harbinger :**_

**It exists, only incredibly rarely and only on Mantle. Too rare for any practical uses. **

_**Phaedo Symposium :**_

**It is, and will remain, a rare ability. And genetic. It would be more likely for Jaune's family to be it than most anyone else, given he is. Beyond that basic agreement, I can't say anything for spoilers. **

_**War Zone N7 :**_

**And then he took the ULTIMATE high ground… THE SKY!**

_**Bukkake no Jutsu :**_

**Not yet, but not for lack of her liking it. I just haven't had a good chance to actually show her doing it. As is, she's barely **_**seen**_ **it, really. Freaking out shall come later.**

_**Talon Ibn La Ahad :**_

**I **_**despise**_ **you, that's how you did. And I won't even give you a reason, you get to flail at your entire prediction thread and guess. XD**

**I will confirm one thing - Cinder is **_**not**_ **a Force user, nor are Salem or Ozpin. The Force was 'dead' on Remnant before the events of the Gods' destruction of the planet at large. However, Magic and the Force are linked, in a sense and way I will eventually hint at more largely - and already have done, to an extent - and anyone with knowledge of The Clone Wars will soon be able to discern how.**

**Always love the Reviews~**

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**For those interested, Once a Rookie Always a Rookie had a chapter update I think was missed, as there have been zero hits on it. Just a note, there. FF can be wonky sometimes, so figured I'd mention it. **_

_**References from last chapter -**_

_**The High Ground. 'One is for Monsters' from the Witcher. 'Switch' from SAO. The sand meme. 'I am one with the Force, the Force is with me'. **_


	8. Chapter 8

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_**Betas for this story so far : Luna**_

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

Life in Beacon was one he was thankfully prepared for, after his years of Instructors rigors and regimen. Classes started at seven o'clock, and breakfast was only served until six forty-five, presumably as much to ensure that every student had no excuse for being late to courses for the day as to make certain the cooks and cleaners could be reset before lunch break and, after, dinner. The workload they had to handle was similar a swell, minus the Force - and Sith, particularly - centered aspects of course such as the meditations and mind hardening Dark Side rituals. The Academy was split into several departments as well, each different though _always_ related to combating the Grimm in some respect.

Combat courses taught the obvious, in how to fight Grimm and Man alike, and hardened students against injury and pain in a way Instructor would have prided himself on. History courses taught lessons that learning naturally meant _dying_, along with sharpening the future fighter's wits. Memorization and recitation of information bore one fruit, after all. A mind that could recall information quickly which, he knew, was a useful tool. 'When in Mistral, do as the Mistralians do' only worked if you could remember what Mistralians would _do_ after all.

Then, there was Grimm studies. Which taught a wide variety of subjects and did so intensely, spread between three teachers with Professor Peter Port at the head for… Some reason. From normal, predictable Grimm armor patterns and their weaknesses, how to harvest Grimm plating for Hunt jobs that required trophy evidence - Wyverns and Goliaths for examples - since their corpses could dissolve quickly if their bodies were too damaged, and then...

"But I don't _want_ to write a paper on Grimm herding _whatever_, Renny!" There was the study of Grimm herds, their naturel movement patterns, and diversionary tactics to divert them. "I smash things, I don't memorize the herding patterns of Beowolves!"

"Huntresses do." Ren pointed out quietly, smiling pleasantly despite Nora's exuberance as always.

"Not on the weekends!"

"I do not believe that Huntresses get the weekends off, Nora." Pyrrha offered gently, smiling as pleasantly as she could as tired as she clearly was from sparring class earlier in the day. In the same voice of polite exhausted, she went on, "In fact, the weekend is the best time to train and study both. No courses to take our time from us."

"True." Jaune nodded, actually considering for a while if they _should_ do some training. Turning to his partner beside him and ignoring the pouting from the partner pair _in front_ of him, he wondered aloud, "In fact, do you think using Saturday for some joint training drills would be-"

"Weekends are for relaxing! Resting! I reject the idea of weekend assignments!" Nora interrupted in her petulant, faux-serious way once the weekend reached them, and they retired with their weekend assignments between them and relaxation. As she had a couple times through the week, she bounced past her partner and his both, stopping in front of him and pouting, "Jauney, it's okay for me to relax this weekend, right?"

"What Ren says goes, Nora." He chided gently, the girl pouting with her arms crossed and eyes narrowing threateningly. Face flat, he shrugged and pointed out, "Unless you want to explain to the Headmistress why you don't have your paper come Monday. Which you know what _that_ will get you, and us. Right?"

"Yeah…"

"I wanna hear it, Nora. So I know you understand." He sing-songed cheerily, smiling at the pouting girl while Pyrrha fought a laugh behind her, sitting on her bed and starting to unpack her books. Nora stubbornly grunted, pantomimed zipping her mouth shut, locking it, and throwing the 'key' away before 'hmphing' and turning to stare at the wall in defiance. Sighing, he rolled his eyes and turned to Ren, "How long do you think the paper will take us?"

"Working together? Thirty to forty minutes." The man answered, accepting the primer and outline folder Pyrrha offered as he stepped by, headed to the desks to open it and skim while he talked. "The assignment is a team paper assignment, and only requires we detail common Grimm migratory passages around Vale's external land. The mostly unclaimed territories, not the more settled, defended ones."

"Nora, you go and get us food. Enough for all of us, _not_ sweets," her smile fell slightly at that addition, but she listened on dutifully regardless, "and drinks, too. Pyrrha, go with her, please. Make sure everything gets sorted right, and help her carry it back. Ren and I will get set up and started skimming the material."

His command power over their team was, he knew, purely ceremonial outside a mission. And yet with some amount of pride, after so little time together, he watched the three move to do as he told without argument. Not a privilege he'd been easily granted, he knew, but rather one he enjoyed due to what they'd seen him do in Initiation. Faith placed temporarily was, after all, still faith. And he was humbled by it, even as it stoked his ego and fed his pride.

'_Balance.'_ He reminded himself silently, helping his teammate lay out their books in a small circle on the floor for work. '_In all things, a balance. Be humbled by their trust and be proud to have earned it. Breathe the contradiction, accept it as part and parcel of life."_

Instructor had taught him as much, and his lessons had not failed as yet.

The girls arrived thirty minutes later, the walk to the Academy kitchens and the wait as their food was made and paid for - Pyrrha was a saint for dealing with Nora's appetite and the costs that bore - before they had to carry it _all_ back to the rooms across the campus. Not that the two women minded much, really, arriving to their dorm with a half-dozen boxes of Beacon brand pizza in one of Nora's hands, the smell of cinnamon and sugar from a brown bag in Nora's other, and Pyrrha holding two little plastic trays of bottled grape and orange sodas one to each hand. The pizzas were distributed along with the little aluminium strays they'd sent along for them to eat off, and Ren explained as they ate.

"Beowolf packs are, individually, typically relatively small. No more than a dozen lesser Beowolves underneath a leading Alpha Beowolf. These patrol what is presumed to be their territory, but don't engage anything except for people when they do. Wolves, bears, other Grimm, the Beowolf packs will walk right by them without concern from either party." Ren explained, his book open while he skimmed with one hand, other carefully keeping the food away from the book while he turned to take bites. "According to this, no one knows _exactly_ why the Beowolf packs move the way they do. But they do know that they tend to rove around a mile from villages, settlements and _three_ miles from the Kingdom's walls. Though it's not unheard of for them to notice people, low flying transports, whatever the case, and come in for a suicidal attack."

"If they don't even know why the Grimm herd the way they do, how are _we_ supposed to-" Ren cut Nora off by kicking the bag of sugary cinnamon sticks closer to her, and she pounced on them with wide, excited eyes. She took one and started chewing on it, waving a hand and murmuring something incomprehensible at them that sounded like 'I have food now'.

Nora's weakness, it seemed, was purely in shoving sweets at her and letting nature take its apparent course. '_Not the worst weakness to have, really… Not like a Beowolf will bribe her attention away with a freshly baked cake or something."_

"So the paper is theoretical." Jaune guessed, looking to Ren and lifting a slice of pizza towards his mouth, "They want us to guess based on evidence and offer our reasoning. Right?"

"It seems that way. You and I read the entire section on Grimm herds, herding tactics, and Grimm group psychology. There are others I doubt would be unimportant." Ren shrugged and, for everyone's benefit, offered, "I doubt Grimm trapping or trophy skinning would entail much about why Grimm move how they do, for instance."

"More likely they'd prioritize how to construct traps and kill Grimm such that their bodies do not dust away." Pyrrha offered, herself skimming her own textbook and offering, "It says here that perhaps the Grimm instinctively patrol the peripheries of settled land simply because packs that do not are quickly killed. Maybe such simplicity is the truth of things?"

"Let's just write on that, then." The exercise was probably more a test of their ability to think on their feet and make good guesses based on little information, after all. So the blonde Force wielder felt comfortable making the leap and jumping on that particular topic. "No one knows for sure what drives Grimm to their patterns, nature of the beast. .Literally. But we do know the basic evolutionary paradigms."

"Herds and groups that die do so for mistakes or failings, and other packs that survive do so because they _don't_ make those mistakes." Ren summarised, "Rinse, repeat, add a few _decades_ and a species has adapted somewhat."

"We've seen it in pigeons and dogs, why would Grimm be so different?" Pyrrha added supportively, Nora grunting and nodding aggressively on her other side, laid on her back now while she chewed on a sweet stick. Rolling her eyes and sliding an open pizza box around to rest against the back of Nora's legs to block any accidents, Pyrrha went on, "I agree, let's write on that. A simple enough topic, and once done we can enjoy our weekend together."

"The first weekend as a team could be enjoyable to spend together." Ren observed, raising his voice slightly, for Nora's benefit and attention, "Maybe we could go see a movie and eat a dinner together?"

"Pruth Bilthis!" The girl shouted, sitting up sharply with wide, almost manically excited eyes. Ren and Jaune _both_ shot her a meaningful glare and she giggled, swallowing hard to force the mouthful down. Finally, she repeated in an excited, sugar high voice, "The new Spruce Willis movie comes out on Sunday! A-And there's that new superhero movie, too-"

"The Revengers." Ren offered quietly, calmly scratching out notes ahead of their work to come. "I believe it's the sequel to Stone Wars from a few years ago-"

"We have _got_ to see that!" Nora crowed excitedly, bouncing where she sat like a child promised candy. Causing very _not_ childlike reactions thanks to physics and her bouncing that had Pyrrha grabbing her shoulders to try and hold her still, the woman still rattling off ideas and trying to bounce all the while, "We could go out for pizza together, or maybe tacos, and grab some donuts on the way to the theater, and watch the movie, and-"

"We can talk out our plans after we're done with our homework." Jaune interrupted, slyly adding, "If you want to go out tomorrow _that badly_, maybe you should… Help us get done? Hm?"

"Jaune, you are going to regret-"

"The Queen is here to lead her glorious subjects in conquest of the evils known as 'homework'!" Nora crowed, tossing Pyrrha back with a hand and earning a surprised cry from the Mistralian champion fighter. Standing, feet spread and fists on her hips, nora continued in a bright, faux-regal tone, "Lord Jaune, you are in charge of leading my forces into battle! Are you prepared, my general?"

"I don't understand-"

"Just go with it." Ren suggested, the blonde young man rolling his eyes and sighing.

"Fine, yes, I am ready to lead your armies into battle, Nora-"

"Your highness!" She corrected, grinning ear to ear and adding after a moment, with an almost wistful sigh, fanning her face with an invisible but no doubt elaborately crafted fan while she spoke, "But ah, you are new to the grand court of the Queen of the Castle. So I will forgive your transgressions just this once, if you should succeed in your crusade."

With an already weary roll of his eyes, the blonde turned to Ren and they exchanged a nod, and set to work. Before their new 'queen' got agitated or, for the worse or the better either way and he couldn't decide, she got bored of the game and returned to eating and bouncing around the room. Something that the reserved Nikos seemed entirely uncomfortable with given… Basic physics and their application on female body parts, as he chose to think of the issue.

Better to focus on the assignment rather than Nora or… _Parts_ of Nora the exuberant girl didn't deign to consider. Or that she was trying to show off for Ren, he considered, based on the way her bright eyes would sometimes slide to her reserved partner.

'_Well that's an intriguing thought…'_ He noted silently, half-listening to his work partner explain Beowolf hierarchies for him and half-looking at the woman, fairly lost in thought. '_I wonder if the infatuation runs both ways, or Ren is simply ambivalent to her. Or if he wants to remain friends…'_

He'd need to watch them, he decided, in case their romance - or lack thereof, both could cause problems - endangered the team's stability. Not that he was _seriously_ worried about that, really. If Nora decided they were dating then Ren would probably smile calmly, roll his eyes good naturedly, and go along with it more than happily. Such was how their relationship appeared to function, at least from a cursory observation, after all.

He put his bets on Nora taking the lead eventually, though, as he turned from his idle musings to finally focus. Not in time for Ren not to give him a suffering, aggrieved look, of course from his lack of helping with the project. He smiled, murmured an apology, and leaned into the project with gusto. He's had enough of getting distracted, even if the long day had him frazzled to the point of that coming a bit easier than normal.

Also, _Nora_.

Nora tended to frazzle people, to say the least. A fact exemplified when the orange haired woman noted the two men doing the project and leapt for Pyrrha, tackling the woman with a victorious cheer and her muted 'hmph' to get past her at the last of the sweets. She reminded him of his youngest sisters, in fact.

"I have an idea, rather than a movie night, for us." He started, a spur of the moment idea coming to mind as the trio looked to him, "Do you want to visit my mother for lunch? I can make a call, and she's an _excellent_ cook."

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

"Most of the girls will be back in Ansel right now, the older ones I mean." He explained as they walked down the Grand Boulevard through the heart of Vale proper.

Like most at Beacon, when they went into town, they did so in their combats, lacking more 'normal' clothes for the moment and more comfortable in them than their uniform. Even if he sometimes got looks for his robes, and Pyrrha left behind people who recognized her attire even with the lacking armor. Her hair and bodice both were recognizable enough, even if she had left behind her armored greaves and only come in her gloves and stockings. Not for the first time, he wondered if they should stop and buy different clothes, but for now this was still more comfortable than their stiff uniforms.

Continuing his explanation for the teeneagers trailing behind him, he went on, "The older girls are trained enough to fight with the Guard, you know? So they're helping patrol the forest and get the Mountain Ranger outposts through the mountains set back up."

"Ansel makes use of Ranger Posts as well, then?" Ren asked, Nora for once silent and looking at him for answers as well, face curious and lacking any mal intent he could sense. The same could be said of Ren, when he reached out with the Force, so the blonde slowed, walking beside the man now instead of leading them all through Vale, "We're from Mistral, where the Kingdom Mountain Ranger Corps was invented. Vale itself doesn't use them, or need them with the way their terrain is, but the region Ansel sits in does?"

"Yes, we do." He answered simply, feeling a very _Sith_ itch to obscure the information for secrecy's sake, to keep their security measures to themselves, crawl up. He quashed it back down immediately, and elaborated, "My mother went to Mistral with my father, a couple years before I was born. Looking for ideas to make Ansel safer with as little overhead as possible."

"The Mountain Rangers were certainly good for that, in Mistral…"

"I never got the chance to learn much about them, really. Back home." He shrugged, the _apparently_ Mistralian couple - as not 'together together' as they might claim they were - giving him a glance at that. Even Pyrrha, on the other side of their little group as they parted through the sparser than normal, lunchtime crowds, gave him a look and he sighed, explaining, "I was… Away from home, for a long time, Pyr can tell you the story. Had a lot of catch up to do, when I got back, and… That all took priority over curiosity."

His priorities rather simply ran his family, working with the Force, and pursuing his goals to be a hero. Somewhere past that, down the line, learning about everything he was curious about came in.

"Mountain Rangers are like a militarized forest ranger, in a lot of ways." Pyrrha was the one to start explaining, loud enough to be heard over the Bullheads buzzing up from a few of the store rooftops, headed off to the industrial zone alongside the trucks and cars that came and went through the middle of the boulevard. "In Vale, throughout the forest, ranger towers with small buzzcraft are placed at good sight ranges to report on fires and Grimm, and move to villages in the path of either using their personal craft."

"The same is the case for the Mountain Rangers, except their jobs entail a more… Military edge, as well. Typically two to three are stationed at each waystation, with room for more scouts ranging between them." Ren added quietly, doing his best to ignore the crowds clustering outside a restaurant, making _more_ than enough noise to annoy as they passed, "If they see Grimm in low numbers, they engage them, and as such are armed and issued armor for the job. Expensive, but compared to buying Hunters for every problem..."

"Kinda pricey to buy weapons and armor, but a _lot_ cheaper on the general than, like, a dozen Hunters just hanging around." Nora summarised for his benefit, the blonde nodding gratefully at the addition and filing it away.

"Using it is a fine enough method to-"

"Oh Dust, is that _the_ Pyrrha Nikos?" He sensed the girl's agitation and turned, looking back at a crowd of younger girls in frilly shirts and skirts, standing a few inches back with their Scrolls up, snapping pictures of the girl's back. Pyrrha turned, a fake little smile on her face, and the one in the middle cooed, "It is! Oh, you're so _pretty_! Can I have a picture?"

"Of course." Pyrrha nodded demurely, giving them an apologetic look before the girls half-dragged her away, wrapping their arms around her and posing with her while they took turns snapping photos.

All the while, around them, he saw the Force darken with despair and aggravation, mixed with sorrowful resignation. Pyrrha's emotions, he knew, clouding the Force so suddenly he choked and instinctively took a step towards them to force the girls away from her.

"Jaune?" Nora was the one to grab his arm and stop him, turquoise eyes meeting his with evident concern written across her face when he tried and failed to pull free from her grip, scowling down at her slightly.

Ren moved to his other flank almost out of his perception, turned towards him with his hand on his shoulder, back to the street while he pointed out. "You looked like murder, for a moment there, Jaune…"

"They're upsetting her." He pointed out dryly, nodding to the cluster of overly touchy girls around Pyrrha a few feet away.

He could tell, _sense_, it and knew they could see it as well by their frowns and their own agitation echoing into the Force around them. Even in only a week, the difference between her forced laughs and stiff smile was evident compared to her brighter laughs and easier smile. A small difference, but one they _all_ could see easily enough. And their bonds may have still been young and weak, but they were more than strong enough to flare at her being forced into what she so disdained.

"We can tell." Ren murmured quietly, leaning close enough that he could hear them and the girls couldn't. "But I lived outside the Kingdoms for a long time, and know when someone is about to get physical. You need to calm down."

"I didn't mean to…" They were right and he knew it and he paused for the realization, letting Nora pull him back a step and turn him. He, more gently, tried to pull free and she let him and he sighed, forcing himself to relax mentally and physically both. His team members noticed it and relaxed in turn, easing away from him slightly but standing close enough to offer their support. "My… My Semblance makes me sensitive to emotions, and Pyrrha went from happy to agitated so quickly, I reacted."

He'd let his temperance go because he'd been surprised, and the seductive, corruptive aspect of the Dark Side had been quick to latch onto him and direct him, to fan his passion into something dark. Such was the whole truth, and such was what he wasn't ready to share with them just yet. Instructor had warned him of the Force's dangers, and being too trusting was one of those lessons. A Force wielder, Jedi or Sith either way, could very easily become overconfident in their ability to tell people's intentions and be too trusting.

He'd read a dozen Sith accounts that showed where that went…

'_In time, Jaune. It will come in time.'_ He promised himself as Pyrrha finally, mercifully, managed to get away from her fans and rejoin them. '_I will trust them in time, once doing so isn't naive and foolish.'_

Even if he already wanted to, he knew it would be silly to. But he set the thoughts aside as Pyrrha rejoined them and smiled apologetically.

"I'm sorry about that." She swallowed anxiously, glancing between each of the and noticing his sour grimace, before her eyes flicked to the ground to avoid it. "I'm famous, of the sort that garners fans rather than yours that garners more professional eyes, so… It will likely happen, time to time."

"It's fine." He nodded, offering her a smile in the hopes of relaxing her and feeling happy when she relaxed slightly. With a jerk of his head he turned, asking, "You guys want to get to lunch or what?

They were more than happy to hurry along at that and, if he used the Force to forcibly and subtly divert people's attentions away from Pyrrha as they walked, well… It's not like anyone would know or could prove it.

The house that had been arranged at first and now existed under Arc ownership proper was a _relatively_ simple design, of a Valean aesthetic. Tall and thin like many houses, the house was made of carved stone brickwork, built by Kingdom Engineers to take advantage of Vale's nearby mountains' supplying the Kingdom with quarried stone regularly and use as much space as possible. Outside, the five story house had been painted red, resting against a white one to one side and a green one to the other, the sides conjoined and roofs staircasing with the rolling hill the housing district had been built on.

The top three floors, he knew from his sister's descriptions, were separated into bedrooms three to each floor, with a tight turning spiral staircase dominating the middle of the design. The second floor was a kitchen area and the master bedroom, and the bottom was a living room that wrapped around the staircase. None of the rooms were very large, maybe eight feet from the inner door to the wall, but such was middle class life in the Kingdoms. The Walls offered safety from the Grimm, but caused constriction of space by necessity, while outside them there was plenty of space to spread out.

'_Plenty of Grimm too.'_ He pointed out for his own benefit, leading the trio behind him up the short stairs to the door and raising a hand to knock. After a moment of silence, he called out, "Mother? I came for a visit with my team like I-"

"Jaune! So good to see you, sweetie." The door swung open and thick, strong arms grabbed him, pulling him against his mother's shoulder in a tight hug and then tugging him inside before he could attempt to escape. Dragging him bodily to the side, a hand tousling his hair while he flushed and let her hug him, she beamed a motherly smile at his team, "You're the rest of Juniper, hm?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Pyrrha was the one to answer, Ren too busy keeping Nora from either rushing off to explore the house or saying something they'd regret. She stepped forward and offered her hand to the woman, smiling at the familial display, "I am Pyrrha Nikos, your son's partner."

"Oh my, pretty _and_ beautiful. You have excellent taste, Jaune, just like your father." His mother complimented, Jaune able to _sense_ his partner's embarrassment as her face flushed to match her hair. The woman chuckled at seeing that and released the blonde, grabbing his partner's stiff hand before she could recover, "I'm only teasing, Pyrrha."

"A-Ah." The woman coughed into her fist when his mother released her hand and, fighting her embarrassment now and giving him a sour look at his smirk, she gestured to the other two with them, "These are our team members, Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie."

"Hiiii~!" Nora waved excitedly and bounced on her heel, Ren laying a hand on the small of her back to subtly tell her to calm down. The woman glanced up at him and then back to his mother without comment, asking instead, "You're _Jaune's_ mom? But you're so pretty, and Jaune's so… Meh!"

"Oi!" Jaune chimed in playfully, smiling at the roll of her eyes.

"Oh my, aren't you the sweetest little thing…" His mother turned to him and stepped aside at that, smiling mischievously. "Speaking of sweet little things… Jade! Hazel! Your brother came by for a visit with his team!"

"Oh no… I hear incoming." He heard the little footfalls of the youngest two of his sisters thudding down the stairs and turned, in time to catch the two wiry little girls _slamming_ into him at full pelt. Muscled and backed by the Force, he only staggered back a few inches, chuckling and hoisting the two girls into the air, spinning them around in a hug while they giggled. Kneeling he let them go and they staggered back, grinning wide, childish grins while he asked, "Now how have you little gremlins been, hm?"

"We're fine!" The sisters chorused brightly together, smiling brightly and looking like miniature copies of Saphron, sans scars. The oldest, with slightly shorter hair, asked for them both, "How have _you_ been? Killed any monsters?"

"Yep! A lot of them." Hazel had always been one to look up to Hunters, always wanting to fight Grimm herself once she got a few years older than their current ten. Grinning, he put on an air of confidence, kneeling on the floor and flexing a bicep jokingly, "Why, just a day ago, I killed a dragon."

"Liar!" She giggled, her younger sister adding a chorus to that after a second.

"Nuh uh!" He childishly imitated, standing and gesturing to Pyrrha with both his hands, grinning the same grin his mother had given him moments ago, "Just ask my partner! Pyrrha Nikos."

The two gasped and turned to look up at the woman, who blinked and had just enough time to meet his eyes. After a scarce second, she murmured, "This is cruel…"

Then the two were on here, hugging her legs and hammering her with questions faster than she could stamme rout answers. One of them grabbed her hips and the other a knee and Pyrrha fell with a startled, gentle cry of surprise. She landed on her rear and, the clever little goblins they were, the girls seized on their successful plan and grabbed an arm each to hug, battering her with _more_ questions. Pyrrha, ever patient and ever kind, tried her best to keep up but two young girls were _not_ something she'd been trained to handle.

"Girls." His mother finally chided in the way only a mother _could_, the two immediately turning to her and letting the Mistralian go. Pyrrha tried to hide it, but she stood up quickly to escape tiny hands while his mother chided them, "Be nice to Jaune's team, now. You're not being polite."

"I-I assure you, they were not in any way a-"

"Not what she meant." Jaune interrupted with a smile, giving the girls a look, "How could you welcome my partner but not my team like that? That's so unfair, right girls?"

"Jaune you absolutely son-of-a-" Nora's half-serious insult was interrupted when Jade slammed into her with a wide hug, and Ren blinked before Hazel did the same to him. With a Grimm-like roare, Nora scooped up her little girl and spun her, giggling, in her arms, "Ahhh, I love kids! Delicious snacks for the Nora!"

"Jaune, your friends can play with the girls." His mother murmured, laying a hand on his arm, "You mind helping me set up for dinner?"

"Sure." He shrugged, following the woman up the stairs and into the kitchen, setting to work under her instructions efficiently. She didn't need the help, he knew that for a fact. What mother could after years with over half a dozen kids?

She just wanted the company, and he didn't mind providing it.

"Do they know about your, ah… Religious tendencies?" She finally asked, minutes later as they were setting the table in the opposite end of the bottom floor, the girls busy with the rest of his team across the way. "I know you're wanting to keep the information under control, so… You know, I need to know."

"I've been saying it's a Semblance, and avoiding any questions when I slip up and mention the Force by name." A mistake he was getting better about not making now, having adjusted to spending time with people he needed to get to know. As opposed to his family, and people they paid, the latter of whom he hadn't spent much time around. "Once I know them better… I'll tell them the rest. For now, though…"

"Trust is earned." His mother nodded understandingly, calling out after a second, "Girls. Wash your hands for dinner. You older children as well."

He rolled his eyes and turned to do as she said while the girls disentangled themselves from Nora, who they'd been playing with. The other three stood and followed, trailing behind towards the bathroom sink and _echoing_ a pleasant, happy mood into the Force around them. Enough that, for once in a week, he relaxed in his seat fully and let himself smile just as much while his mother set out the potatoes and ham she'd decided to make when he said he was coming over.

'_Today was a very, very good day…'_ He decided, watching Pyrrha slice the ham at his mother's suggestion and smiling even wider. Now for a nice dinner to round out the Saturday, and relaxation tomorrow in his dorm. With a good book, hopefully.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**To note, the description I use of Vale is built out over most of my stories. In essence, for here so I don't have to integrate the description and bloat the word count, the city is split as such. **_

_**A grand boulevard - think Time Square for function, but much longer, about ten miles, and a bit wider as well - splits the city from north-west to the south-east, where the ocean is. Around the natural bay of the Valean harbor is a large warehouse, shipping and industrial zone full of production for everything from firearms and domestic goods, to Bullhead parts, orders to repair the Wall with, and naval ship production for trade between the Kingdoms and travel. **_

_**Closer to Beacon and past a large swathe of wealthy housing districts, for obvious reasons, at the northern region of the Kingdom past the Grand Boulevard, is the Government District. With large bureaucratic buildings, liaison offices for military and Hunter duties, and the grand Council Chambers in the center, with diplomatic halls and dormitories for dignitaries from other Kingdoms adjoining. As well as housing for representatives elected by the populace of Vale and the largest settlements outside it, as few of them as there were.**_

_**At the opposite end of the Boulevard is a span of several blocks curving with the natural harbor, with nicer, middle income housing towards the shopping districts, administrative offices and skyscrapers flanking the Boulevard's. Imagine New York's nicer housing, and you're good. A few blocks at the edge of the warehouse districts and industrial zone has the poorer housing, mainly populated by malcontent Humans that don't fit in and Faunus, or people of either species unable to get a career outside the industrial work. The only exceptions are the three larger transport roads leading to the docks proper, flanked by more of the nicer houses owned by merchants and explorers that work there, though many foreman and dock owners have homes built into their warehouses. **_

_**A bit long winded, but here you go. Would have been worse adding the flowery description to the story proper and integrating it in. I've built it up a lot over the years, and doing it again… Feels like cheating, I guess. **_

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**Tea in Winter :**_

**XD**

_**Dr. Killinger :**_

**Always love the predictions.**

_**Josh Spicer :**_

**For the… For the teams? Same as canon. Jaune is leader, Ruby is other one.**

_**Talon Ibn la Ahad :**_

**You shall see~**

**As always, love the predictions and ideas you generate. You should join my Server, talk to people more readily. Could be fun.**

_**Abyss Trinity :**_

**That's the gist of what I am going for, actually. Jaune isn't all powerful, or immune to problems or mistakes from his abilities. He's not at his apex, as shown above actually, and can be influenced by things or make mistakes. **

**Glad you're enjoying it.**


	9. Chapter 9

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_**I hope you all enjoy the chapter update and the proper start of the Rannoch Arc, and hope you drop a Review and let me know what you think. But this isn't for that. I wanted to offer a special congratulations to a friend of mine named Bill the Something, who recently became an uncle.**_

_**And I wanted to give him a special congratulations on chapters through the week.**_

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

Jaune despised two things, truly and utterly.

One was the Grimm in their entirety, though their purity of desire and purpose was something his attuned mind found beauty in. Bestial, powerful, cruel and wicked, but pure of intent in a way unmatched by any other single thing. Aside from Atlas' automated soldiers, of course, but they were purely artificial and entirely devoid of the purity of natural purpose. And they, unliked the black-furred, white-armored Grimm, could be tricked and used to savage their fellows or their master. The Grimm, however, savaged neither other animals or each other, outside the usual sporting bouts and succession trials when an Alpha was wounded beyond use or killed.

"Ha, feel 'em! They really are real, I told you so." Humans, though, were cruel and base, as he was seeing now. Lunch was normally something he looked forward to, the Force reverberating with the social uplifting the event always came with.

Now, though…

"Someone should teach that jerk a lesson." Yang groused, one of a literal score of students and staff, no doubt, who felt the same. In front of her, and Jaune and Pyrrha both for that matter, their trays were half-empty, and they intermittently poked at their meals without appetite for them while they watched the bully mock and jeer. "Why don't the teachers do something or… Something."

"There are no teachers chaperoning us, likely because we are, all of us, _meant_ to be grown adults." Ren sighed, sitting next to the braid-wearing blonde and tearing his toast into smaller pieces to alternatively eat and pitch into the air across the table for Nora to snap up.

An exercise in combating her aggravation at the bully and to control her energies, he knew. Breaking the bully's legs or their table out of boredom, _neither_ would be something they wanted.

"The staff are _right over there_, though!" Ruby hissed, pointing across the long, wide, tall room to where the cooks and cleaners were hard at work setting up the three long tray-lines that students collected their food from until they were full, arrayed like a buffet. "Why don't _they_ do anything?"

"Civilians step between Aura-enabled, trained people?" Jaune asked gently, watching the man across the way grab Velvet by the hip and _force_ her to sit between himself and the mohawked member of their group. Turning his eyes to look at the Rose sat across from him but not his head, he raised a brow, "How likely to succeed do you think _that_ would be?"

"I don't think Velvet would risk them getting hurt…"

"No, she wouldn't, which is likely precisely why she does not cry out for their aid." It was easier for people to watch something horrible and ignore it, watching no one else take action. But if someone reached out for you, pleaded with you directly? That was harder to shirk and shrug off. "She's a tough girl, she can handle a little harassment. Else that upperclassman would have already broken his fingers off her ear."

"Faunus' ears are sensitive." Blake snapped suddenly, grimacing sheepishly and shrinking in her seat when eyes landed on her. "W-What I mean to say is that a champion fighter, able to take all manner of punishment, would balk if you grabbed their ears. Or tails, or whiskers, or wings, whatever the case."

"My father's workers-"

"Slaves."

"_Workers_, Blake. Workers. Slaves can't leave, and they can if they wish. That they do not is hardly my father's fault." Weiss not quite snarled, blue eyes narrowing on Blake for a moment until she was sure Blake would do no more than roll her eyes and shrugged, clearly beyond unconvinced. Finally, she went on, "My father's workers often refuse to wear the helmets they are given, saying how it hurts their ears to."

"Maybe if you would just make them specialised helmets, like the _military_ does…"

"Blake, that is _not_ a conversation to have with me." Weiss drawled sarcastically, "If those Faunus wanted to lodge formal complaints and request specialised equipment be purchased, they could. All they need do is form an organized union and petition the SDC properly, if it is _such_ a pain."

"You mean like the White Fang used to be?" Blake nettled, amber eyes narrowing on Weiss while, beside the Schnee and across from the dark-haired beauty, Ruby floundered and panicked. "Because that's what the Fang _did_, isn't it? Back before the SDC's silence and apathy turned them to violence."

"Whoa, whoa, Blake. Girls, I mean, girls. Come on now, reel it back a bit. No need for claws, right?" Yang finally cut in, laughing awkwardly beside her and leaning on the table with her elbows, bumping against the girl jovially. Both women simply grunted, prodding more aggressively at their food, and Yang sighed. "Thank you, just _chill out_."

"Mhm." Blake groused after the deserved groans at the ever present Atlas puns they'd been dealing with for weeks now, Ren scooting away from her a fraction in lieu of a potential fight. After a moment, Blake sighed and offered a stiff, glassy, "Sorry, Weiss. Just… Cardin is upsetting me, I suppose."

"Of course. I could say the same, and such would be true." The woman's response was icy, but as cordial as Jaune suspected he could expect.

He spared Ruby a glance, turning away from the bully's harassing antics even to see her, and she just shrank in her seat, head leaning against her hand while her hand hid most of her face for shame. That only furthered his curiosity and, if he were honest, concern for the young woman across from him. Normally she was such a beacon of Light that the Force around her seemed to, at times when she was her most ecstatic, _quake_, but now? Now it was still and dim, like a sun yet, but more akin to one hidden behind a darkened, overcast sky than the bright, warm, sunny day he would compare her to at other times.

"I think that the problem at hand is Cardin, and I believe we are in agreement _there_ at the least." Pyrrha, saint and font of patience and charity that _she _was so helpfully chimed in. Nodding her head towards the man, she pushed her plate back an inch and turned her chair, glaring balefully - for Pyrrha, at least, so less 'baleful' and more 'motherly scolding' - at the man. "I've a mind to intervene myself, and to the Grimm with the consequences I might receive."

"You'd get a mark on your record." Weiss sounded affronted at the idea and Pyrrha grimaced, likely considering her sponsors and, with them, her tuition at Beacon. Leaning on the table when the Mistralian didn't answer, Weiss went on in a hissed, hushed voice, "Your tuition here is from your sponsors, I know that because the SDC is _one of them_. If you start fighting, and it seems you are going down a troubling path-"

"What, they'll yoink her enrollment?" Nora asked, rolling her eyes when Weiss blinked and nodded, arms spread for a moment like she was presenting that very fact. Grinning, Nora stood, pushing her chair back and leaning over the table, "Then maybe _I_ can break his legs? Then Pyr isn't in trouble, and the jacka-"

"Nora."

"_Jerk_," she amended, giving her partner's shoulder a pat and squeeze, "will leave the Bunnygirl alone."

"A mark on _you_ record could reflect on Pyrrha as well." Weiss pointed out, the ginger's eyes narrowing in question and turning to the Mistralian with it. Pyrrha nodded in answer, but it was Weiss who explained, "If you go around flunking classes, or bad mouthing teachers, or, yes, _fighting other students_, then that reflects on her as a team member. Tabloids make a living off reading into invisible lines."

"'Mistral's champion's team a bane on Vale's most prestigious Hunter Academy', eh?" Yang intoned dramatically, the more famed members of their group nodding knowingly. Jaune was unfortunately a member of that group, though the tabloids had thankfully had little time to devise more vile stories. "Yeah, figured that was the case. Else I'd have taken him for a one way ride on the Yang express. _Xiao Long_ do you think I'd let that-"

"Stop!"

"No!"

"Not my sister…"

"Please, kill me…"

"You are _all_ party crashers, and not the fun ones." Yang sighed, drowning her sorrows in a can of Grape and then slamming it down like the alcoholic beverage it _definitely_ was not. Shaking her head and, in a darker, lower sort of tone Jaune suspected more meant for murder plotting than lunchtime complaints, went on, "Any of us go up there, we're going to have a fight. And… That's not worth it, not unless she _asks_ for help, at least."

"Oh if she asked, then I would damn the black mark and freeze him where he stands." Weiss' tone was cold and sharp, like she was, but surprising in a way. She caught the not quickly enough hidden looks and growled, "What? Because she's a Faunus, you think I would not care for her? Just wow, you guys. Thanks for the faith…"

"In fairness-"

"Bad, Blake. No." Yang cut in, thumping the woman on the nose with a spoon and grinning at the shocked face that earned. Shock that turned first to hurt, and then was bottled away as the woman stood, Yang blinking in surprise as she turned to stalk away stiffly. Stunned, the blonde stood up and called out, "Blakey, what did I say? What's wrong?"

Hearing no reply, the blonde tossed a 'See ya, guys' and took off after her, practically sprinting in her hurry to catch her partner and address whatever she'd done to set the other woman off so badly.

"My team is a mess…" Ruby whined, folding her arms on the table and laying her head on them, face hidden by her arms. "I'm the worst leader ever…"

"You're fine, whatever Blake's problems with me are, you are most definitely not to blame for her poor attitude, Ruby." There was a softness there, Jaune noticed with a slow, contemplative blink, busying himself gnawing on a piece of toasted bread topped in cheese. It was a good replacement for the shouting and arguing of their first week, he supposed with a small shrug, so he let it go.

"I should be able to keep my team together right, though… You and I are, you know, _good_ now, but…" A hand rose, waved vaguely the way the other partner-pair of their team had gone, and then flopped across her head in the same motion. "Blake is being I don't even know, and Yang is being Yang and… I don't know."

"She was being rather catty." Ren nodded with a grimace, pitching a fry into the air for Nora, standing still, to lash out and catch with her mouth in their game. "Is this _normal_?"

"Yes, it's-"

"Force damn it!" Jaune snarled finally, slamming his fist down into the table hard enough it smarted as, again, Cardin grabbed her ears and Velvet cried out, bent practically over his lap from his tugging. Rising, Jaune took one step towards the problem and Weiss' hand landed on his stomach, mouth open to warn him, but he already knew her words. "No fighting, I know. I won't start anything, he can swing at me if he wishes to. I presume self defence is allowed in these ridiculous contracts?"

"...Even the tabloids would enjoy her having a restrained hero over one who lashes out, yes. They would run that for the sales it would get." Weiss nodded, offering him a small, wan smile as he strode away, Pyrrha's eyes locked on his back.

"I think she like syou, dude." The mohawked man nodded, leering at the Faunus' rear as she bobbed dangerously, crying as she was tugged along. Grinning, the man added, "Or maybe she likes _me_, huh?"

"Animals like these, she might, yeah." Cardin caught him coming from the corner of his eye and turned, years of training warning him before Jaune could quite reach him. He let her ears go and she receded, the green-haired one wrapping an arm around her shoulders before she could truly escape. Instead, she stared to him, hoping for help and, he could tell, hoping for _not_ a violent rescue.

Cardin turned, sneering with his arms crossed, and grinned at the newcomer to the table, "What's up, Arc? Come for dinner or the show?"

"I came to tell you to let the woman go and eat her lunch in peace, you asinine ape of a man." Jaune sighed, the man's smile evaporating into a sneer before he _flexed_ through the Force, sending waves of foreboding sensation and intent washing over the man. Cardin paled at that and, seizing it, Jaune closed with him, leaning down into his face with his hands on the back of the chair, ignoring his teammates standing and jeering at him for it, "You see, Winchester, you are going to let her go. Or I am going to be angry. Look at my table, tell me what's _not there_."

"I-I…" He did, and Jaune saw the gears working in his head as he realized their little group was lacking members. "The, uh, the blonde bimbo and that Belladonna bitch-"

"Blake and Yang, you base bigot." He snapped shortly, sending another _flex_ through the Force to wash over the man. They did to him as waves over one treading water did, wearing down their endurance and, eventually, pulling them under. Drowning to death or, in this case, panicking, the end was almost inevitable. "You ruined my lunch, and _theirs_ especially, with this trite shit. So you have your green-haired fuck buddy there let Velvet go before I ruin _yours_."

"You mother-"

"L-Let her go, Russ." The large man stammered, hands gripping the bottom of his seat.

"But-"

"Do what I Brothers damn say, Russ, and don't fucking argue with me." He snapped back, never once looking away from Jaune. Not even as Velvet stood, her tray of cold food in her hand, and stepped behind Jaune. Swallowing through a no doubt dry throat, the man stammered, "T-There. We done here?"

"Yeah, we're done." Jaune grunted, pushing off the chair and effectively shoving the large man back against Russel's legs. Turning, he laid a hand on Velvet's shoulder and steered her away, towards _his_ table, "You eat with us, from now on, Velvet."

"But-"

"No buts, unless it is to tell me you _enjoy_ that abuse." She didn't speak and instead nodded with a small, nervous sigh. She sat beside him, between Jaune and Weiss, at his insistence and the blonde leaned forward to point at the Schnee with raised brows, "You behave, Weiss."

"Wha-"

"You wouldn't want a _mark on your record_, would you?" Ruby teased, sitting up and offering Velvet a sheepish smile while the Schnee spluttered insults and denials. "Hi, uh, Velvet. Welcome to the table! We're all nice, here, so you don't have to worry about those booty heads. Or, well, we're nice, 'cept Weiss."

"Hey!"

"She can be rather crabby at times, I am afraid, yes." Pyrrha added, leaning back to mouth an 'I'm sorry' while Velvet snickered and started to, more visibly to Jaune than anyone else, relax. After a moment's silence, aside form Weiss' (ignored) complaints and protests, Pyrrha asked in a gentle voice, "So, Velvet… How are you doing?'

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

"Blake!" The secret-Faunus ignored her partner's call, beyond speeding up her fast-march towards the library, hoping for books to distract herself, shelves to slip between and shadows to lurk in. "Come on, let's talk about… Whatever this is!"

"I do _not_ want to talk, Yang." She snapped back over her shoulder, not turning to look at her bubbly, overly protective and kind partner. She wouldn't _dare_, couldn't dare for that matter.

Familiar comforts was what she wanted, that she'd grown more than just used to in her less savory past. A perfect escape for a coward like her, wanting a place to wallow in her own inequity and anger. She reached the doors that lead out into the walkway that then lead to the library building proper and got a hand on it, just in time to feel a hand on her shoulder and hear a loud, ecstatic, "Finally, got you, Blakey. Now let's talk about all-"

"Yang, this is _not_ something I am going to talk about. Why can't you get that?" She met the blonde's surprised face and fought to keep hers blank.

"Blake…?" Yang recoiled, if only just, eyes and face flashing through confusion and then hurt, and Blake's hand folded. Yang _sad_ was not something, it turned out, Blake was equipped for. Adam was one thing, that mask hid his face-

She cut that train of- _Line_ of thought off before it could gain purchase and pulled away from Yang. Not enough to distance them, she was certain of that. Just enough to get her hand off her, let her run if she needed to. Yang let her go and took a half-step back, hoping to give her the space she wanted or still hurt from her snapping a moment ago. The look alone…

"I-I'm sorry, Yang." She rushed to fold her hand before the dealer had even so much as reached for the deck. Sighing, she explained as best she could short of taking her bow off, though it as always itched and ached desperately. "It was just… Velvet, and what was happening, a-and Weiss being a bit of a… I don't know."

"A frosty bitch?" Yang offered cheerily, the Faunus rolling her eyes but nodding regardless. Seeming to recover, the blonde leaned against the wall of the wide hallway, watching Blake closely as she spoke, "It's just Weiss being Weiss. She's defending her family."

"Her family has thousands of Faunus-"

"I know, I… Gods, Blake, do I know." Yang nodded, smiling sadly but resignedly and then shrugging. Not the usual flippant, almost flirty kind of shrug either, this one was… Sorrowful, in a weird way. "Weiss has a lot on her plate, Blakey, lik… Like a _lot_. But controlling her father's corporation isn't one of those."

"She could try-"

"Maybe she is, maybe she isn't." Yang shrugged and pushed off the wall. Then she turned and looked down the hall for a long moment, watching a teacher vanish around a corner before turning back to Blake. "We all have skeletons, Blake. Weiss has a company to, probably, fix one day. But she has to get there. And you… You have your own, don't you?"

"I don't know what you-"

"Maybe two specific ones?" The blonde pressed, stepping closer to her, eyes crinkling warily as she watched the Faunus in front of her. Only too late did Blake realize she was in Yang's guard, now, and if she ran Yang could catch her easily. Her shoulders tensed instinctively at that and what the woman was implying and, of course being the trained fighter she was, Yang noticed, asking simply, "I know what's under there. Weiss doesn't, I can tell, she'd… Have words."

"I don't... I don't doubt it, Yang." Blake murmured, ears twitching in agitation freely now that the veil was broken. Listening, searching for anything from ambushes to strangers coming and going who might hear. "A Schnee team with a Faunus? Unlikely, to say the least."

"Weiss wouldn't care about your… Horns?"

"Ears." Blake sighed, shaking her head dourly, "I have… Ears."

"...Dog?" Yang guessed with a small grin, pointing a finger at the crown of her head curiously.

"No!" Blake shouted in surprise, blinking after a second and listening for any attention that brought. When no attention came, she first question Beacon's _not_ investigating a woman screaming 'no' and then relaxed, shaking her head. "They're… Cat ears."

"Can I…" A hand half-reached up towards her head and Blake glowered, before it dropped and Yang nodded. "Okay, not okay, got it. Didn't know, sorry."

"Who all knows?"

"Just me, really. Ruby's a dolt, probably just thinks your bow is like her cloak and Weiss is… Weiss." She shrugged unsurely, "Jaune might, he's perceptive, but… I dunno. I only know because I'm a big sister full time, mom part time thanks to Ruby and… Stuff I'll explain later about home. Point being," she sighed, "I always notice when people are hiding things. Stolen cookies, Dust rounds, checking if people are looking when you adjust your bow…"

"You noticed…?"

"You think I make so much of a scene in the mornings for the fuck of it?" Yang asked, smiling roguishly and crossing her arms. "No, I'm distracting Weiss and Ruby. Covering for you, Kitty-Cat, because we're friends. S'why I made that joke, too, and I won't do that again. I know it bothers you now."

"Thank you…" The gratitude was genuine and deep in a way that Blake couldn't have possibly explained if she'd tried. "You didn't- I didn't even _ask_ you to do that. Why didn't you even ask me why I was doing it?"

"Your business why you're hiding it, not mine." Yang shrugged simply, as though Blake simply _wanting it hidden_ was reason enough to act all in its own. After a moment of Blake gaping at her like a dumb fish, she asked, "You want to tell me why you're hiding them like that?"

"No, I'm not… Ready." Blake swallowed, staring at Yang's neck to avoid her eyes. "I-I'm sorry, but-"

"S'fine, Blakey. I don't mind you keeping what's yours to yourself, and I will keep flashing my tits to fluster Weiss and annoying Ruby in the morning to cover for you, don't you worry about a thing." The blonde shrugged simply, stepping by to grab the handle of the door outside and beaming a smile at her. "Come on, now, let's go hide long enough for you to have reasonably sulked your problems away."

"I don't… Sulk." Blake groused, the blonde chuckling but not answering, letting the other woman duck through the door and following behind her while Blake insisted, "I don't silk, Yang! I… I brood at the _worst_."

The blonde woman laughed brightly and, for once in _months_ with Adam and _weeks_ with Beacon, Blake started to relax. Yang knew some, but trusted her implicitly and openly, and that… That was new and _good_, and Blake was happy to have it.

"Seriously though, can I touch them? I bet they're soft~!"

"Yang!"

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

"You don't have to keep doing this…" Velvet finally spoke in something other than 'okay', 'sure', or 'yeah' two lunches and a weekend later, sitting between Yang and Blake, the blonde lounging against the rabbit-Faunus' side with a cocksure smirk, dressed in her combats as they all were ahead of Monday sparring class. A smirk that turned quickly to confusion as she pulled away, Velvet explaining as fast as she could before Yang could leap to conclusions Velvet didn't necessarily want, "Winchester is leaving me alone now, so you don't… Don't need to babysit me. I'm fine."

"We're-"

"Oh I'm _quite_ sorry, but I didn't know we were babysitting you." Weiss cut across Jaune, smiling thinly in that cold, clinical but still somehow friendly sort of way she did. "If I had known, I'd have sent a bill along. How's twenty Lien an hour sound to you, then, now I know the situation to hand properly?"

"I, uh, I don't understand what you…"

"She means we aren't babysitting you, or keeping you." Ren offered calmly from down the table, pitching fries up its length for Nora to catch, still stuck on that game she'd made the week before. In the same always calm voice, the man explained simply, "You needed help, we helped you, and now you are our friend. Or rather, we consider you as one, albeit a newer one."

"You're welcome at our table, and with us." Pyrrha added gently from beside Jaune, giving the woman a warm smile. Velvet seemed to respond to that marginally more than their conversations thus far, "We here don't care about your ears, and enjoy your company. You are welcome here, and just as welcome to leave, if you wish."

"Got like, five minutes to pick, though." Yang pointed out, waving a hand up at one of the large clocks lining the interior wall, each the size of a man and alternating so that all students had something to check the time on. "Combat class starts in fifteen, and we need to start heading there. So, what do you wanna do, Vel?"

"I-I wanna be friends, so you should stay!" Ruby added in her own clumsy attempt to keep Velvet on side. Velvet blinked and looked at the young woman and, flushing, Ruby hid her head in her hood and murmured, "Sorry…"

"I don't want pity…" Velvet glanced to each of them quickly and then, finally, sighed and finished, "But this isn't pity. This is all just you being nice to me, and inviting me to be your friend, and I'm being a stubborn cunt for no reason. Aren't I?"

"I mean, wouldn't call you a _cunt_…"

"But yes, in a way at least." Jaune rolled his eyes, ignoring Yang entirely and speaking to Velvet instead. After a heartbeat he sighed, grabbed a fry and twirled it in his fingers idly, watching it while he went on. "I would argue paranoid more than stubborn, though, even though even _that word_ doesn't quite work right. Thinking that people wouldn't want to just be your friend, I mean."

"I understand, and… Would like to be friends?" They nodded and, after a moment of moderately awkward silence, they all chuckled and started to eat again, nibbling at the last of their food until the bells chimed to alert the students to the changing of class. With resigned sighs and only a few words, they started packing up their stuff and began making their way to the training arena for spars.

He caught Cardin glowering as they left and half turned to him, head cocked to the side in challenge, flexing his threat through the Force like he'd done several times now to cow the man into submission. The young bigot balked immediately, shot a glare and sneer at Velvet's back, and turned to leave without a word.

"What was that all about?" Ruby asked with her hands clasped behind her head, the two leaders trailing behind their team, letting them make a wake through the students for the less inclined members of their group to use to navigate. "You went all scary face… But when I do that to people, they just laugh."

"Scary face?" He asked, the girl cocking her head to the side and grinning in what he _supposed_ was meant to be be feral, eyes crossed while she did. He snorted and laughed, earning a pouting glare from the girl he waved off, "It's… Part of my Semblance, I can intimidate people if I want to."

Not to mention making them angry, or ignore things, or calming their nerves… But better not to touch on that, lest he earn questions he didn't feel like dealing with.

"Sounds like a fun- I mean, _useful_ Semblance, not, you know, not fun… I wouldn't say that, haha, I'm all grown up. M-Mine just helps me go fast… Kinda, I mean." He'd seen it in action, during training, and though it took a _lot_ out of her right now he had seen the potential in it. Not to mention the lack of credit 'I go fast' gave her, or her Semblance. "Yours can do a lot, though. Moving things _and_ affecting emotions?"

"It's… Just how it works, I guess, Ruby. I don't know everything about it, really." _That_ part, at the very least, was true. Still only in a way that was synthetic and sterile, keeping his secret and only _technically_ being true in looser terms of the words. "You know how Semblances can be, sometimes. They're weird."

"Yeah, I guess…" A little shrug of small shoulders, "Semblances _are_ funny, so yeah. Wonder what else yours can do."

"Maybe we'll find out, one of these days." He had a few ideas of what he could do with the Force, to say the least.

The texts detailed everything from healing capabilities to construction applications, and even into more… Fantastical areas, like elemental control and the ability to, apparently, _fly_ to some extent. Theoretically, at least, as the texts detailed only two instances of it _working_ in a 'the user didn't _die right after_' sort of way. He'd only been declared _not dead_ a scant few months prior, and spent _more_ than enough time underground. He didn't fancy trying dangerous, deadly Force experiments _just_ yet.

Shaking the ideas off, he asked in a light, airy way, hoping to hide where his mood had gone with his thoughts. "Anyway, ideas on who you want to spar with today? I'm thinking of challenging Yang, but I don't want to have to go easy on someone."

"I heard that, Loverboy!" The blonde called back over her shoulder, turning and walking backwards so she could meet his gaze with a cocky grin and raised brows. With hand, she waved up her length and teased, "You think you can handle _all of this_, do you?"

"I do, actually, yeah."

"Oh we are going to have _fun_ in class today!" Yang crowed, turning and throwing an arm around her partner, who sighed sufferingly but didn't try and escape. Grinning wide and sure, she asked in a loud voice, "Gonna be rooting for me, Blakey? I could use a cute cheerleader, you know~!"

"I am _not_ a cheerleader." Blake sighed, rolling her eyes dramatically and then grinning, raising a tiny 'team RWBY' flag for them to see, "_But_ I did make this over the weekend- Yang, no, don't steal my flag!"

"It's cute! Gimme! I want!" Jaune laughed at the proclamation, alongside their entire little group, and settled back to enjoy the day. Another good day, part of a _relatively_ good week - unpleasantness with Winchester aside - down and through with.

What, he wondered, would _tomorrow_ bring calling?

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**So, ladies, gents and assorted robots, guess what the first arc is going to be about?**_

_**Yay… I made Cardin a good guy in one story and here, he's a dickhead. Not the last you'll see of him, believe me. A mildly shorter chapter, but mainly a setup one, full of character dynamics and conversations instead of action. I considered shoe-horning in a spar, but elected not to.**_

_**Lemme know if you would prefer I intersperse spars in, to add some action to the chapters, and I will endeavor to.**_

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**Gaspachu :**_

**This story follows a slightly different framework I am testing, at least right now, where the story has arcs within. The Prologue Arc was in Ansel, for instance, and had the set up, rising action and climaxes as per norm of a full story. Here, Beacon time will consist of a few sets like that, until I reach a certain (undisclosed) point that the MAJOR arc comes to a starting head.**

**Lemme know if you have any queries or concerns, I will rush to answer them as I am here or in a message.**

**Glad you have liked it so far, though!**

_**Anonymousse :**_

**XD**

**Also, I recognize your name from somewhere...**

_**Captain Dick Scratcher :**_

**Spoilers~**

_**Red Demon Eye :**_

**One, welcome back. Two, can't answer any of that for spoiler reasons~ XD**

_**Dragon Lord Syed :**_

**He didn't return to Ansel, he went to an Arc house in Vale, to introduce his team to his family. As for why he'd do so so soon… Well, I mean, he missed four years or so. He values the time now, I suppose you could say.**

_**Josh Spicer :**_

**You… You know my writing name, write?**


	10. Chapter 10

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

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_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

In combat, Instructor had always said, there were three great, overarching types of fighters. Scalpels, those who shot into combat - either literally, with a firearm like Ruby could do, or figuratively by using speed and accurate attacks like Weiss would - to cut down their enemies and support stronger, _sturdier_ allies in engagements. Then there were the stalwart, those who held ground rather than launching out to take it, and he liked to fancy himself one such fighter, though he knew in truth he was more akin to a scalpel than a stalwart kind of fighter.

Then, there were the _hammers_, he'd always been told by Instructor, as the droid swapped between the styles to beat him into the ground until he learned to deal with them. Proper, Sith training, that, either breaking him or breaking _though_ with the lesson. People who functioned as hammers in battle were brutal, somewhat slower typically, but _unyielding_ fighters. Stalwart fighters held ground heedless of damage taken or coming, and scalpels maneuvered around their opponents to _deal_ that damage, hamstringing opponents until they could crush them. Hammers, though, skipped all the preamble and went straight to _crushing_, under weathering, devastating blows.

"What, not gonna use your fancy glowstick, Jaune?" Yang, the _very clear_ hammer among his group of friends, jeered as he joined her on the sparring arena floor. She cocked a hip to rest her fist on and watch him spin his glaive at his side on the palm of his hand, whistling from the speed the Force let him reach. "I was hoping for your _real_ weapon, not your backup. What gives?"

"One is for fighting _people_, so I don't hurt them." He caught the glaive and held it in front of him, curved edge facing inward to line up with her neck in a faux-threat she smirked at. Letting it drop, he finished in a cooler fashion than how he'd explained it to Ruby, "The other is for killing monsters."

"What's the difference?"

"My glaive is a blade, so it only _cuts_ things." He left unstated the obvious, that Aura could easily protect against blades. Yang was a smart hammer, she'd figure that bit out for herself, he was sure. "My lightsaber, though, _burns through_ them. If I swung for your arm and you blocked, I could destroy your Gauntlet or do some serious burns to your arm. So unless you _want_ to go to the infirmary with third degree burns..."

"Nah, was just curious." She shrugged the idea off now she was satisfied and flicked her arms out to the sides, Ember Celica extending to full form while she watched. Careful eyes that he recognized for their staunch seriousness at work, checking his equipment for damage. Meeting his eyes again, she smiled, playful again inside a moment, and shrugged, "Plus, if its a heat weapon, it would play _hell_ with my hair. Frizz it up like nothin' else, I'd bet."

"Or burn it off." He shuddered, as much a reaction to what he knew _that_ could come to as to show he was joking. The woman across only half-laughed, the other half of her glaring death at him for the idea. He waved it off and shrugged, "Hey, that's why I have my glaive here, right?"

"Yeah." She nodded, giving him a threatening, _almost_ feral grin that had him pause for a moment in checking the straps of his forearm guard, "You're smart for it, too. Wouldn't have wanted to hurt you if you did something _bad_ like that."

Hadn't that been the _point_ of leaving his saber behind? He didn't bother arguing that, of course, since he knew better than to risk angering a wild Yang even further, but he felt like that had been the _entire _point of their conversation. Rolling his eyes and sighing, he looked up, to the high booth where the deputized Headmistress stood, doing the final system checks of the day before sparring started properly. But typically she'd be done right about-

"Are you two prepared?" The woman finally called, eyes hard and critical even from such a distance landing on them. Like it was _their_ fault, somehow, that they'd been read fast and already wanted to challenge each other when they came in, sop they'd had to wait on her. "I apologize for the wait, but you should expect such when you rush up to me to make your challenges at the start of the class."

"Sorry, Headmistress Goodwitch." They both called it mechanically the way it had been drilled into their heads, though Jaune had to resist the urge to point out only Yang had gone running up to her. That way lay madness, he knew. Madness coming from weeks of detention, or Yang's revenge fuelled attentions.

Absolute, blonde fuelled madness.

"If both are sparring members are prepared?" The woman said it like a sentence, but the two blondes nodded regardless. A gesture she returned, turning her attention on the students arrayed sporadically around the room. "Our first match of the day is a challenge exhibition between Jaune Arc, of Ansel, and Yang Xiao Long of-" Ruby interrupted, then, to whoop and cheer excitedly, and the blonde woman's eyes snapped to her, "Miss Rose, be still and calm, please."

"Sorry…"

"As I was saying," the Headmistress sighed after a few long moments, "Jaune Arc of Ansel, and Yang Xiao Long, of Patch and Signal academy. They each wanted to challenge each other to a spar and informed me as such. Remember that any student may spar any student, so long as they get my approval before class to do so. It is always a great method for growing your combat skills, facing a variety of opponents"

Left unsaid in the introduction was an implication, from the lack of an Academy name to follow in his introduction. Yang had been formally trained in a formal Academy, with multiple Hunters and support staff to ensure a quality, regulation education. It could mean he'd been taken in and trained by the best Hunter on the frontier, or one of them rather, and then admitted on recommendation rather than accreditation. Or, equally likely, it could mean he passed or somehow cheated tests and the system out where such was easier to do for lack of infrastructure and now he was here.

Prodigy trained by a veteran directly, or a country bumpkin just smart enough to cheat his way into the Academy, those were his options, and the rumor mill would run them. Though hopefully, his displays in Initiation had gone some distance in picking which the mill would decide to take as fact.

"Dust barriers are in place and ready, and the Aura readouts are registering both of you." The woman went on, running roughshod through his musings and drawing his attention back to the present. "Are you both prepared for the bout?"

"Yes, Headmistress."

"Yep- Yes ma'am!"

"Better, Miss Xiao Long. I would have hated to have to issue you extra assignment for disrespecting me. Again." Goodwitch murmured, smirking almost haughtily at the rapid amendment to the blonde's statement. The students around them chuckled and laughed, for a moment, before the woman started speaking and they, fearfully from what he could sense washing across the Force, quieted down. "The match will continue until a student is rendered unconscious, their Aura drops below thirty percent, or they are pinned or wounded in such a way as to be unable to reasonably continue the bout. Are these terms agreeable?"

"Yes, Ma'am." They chorused brightly, excitement crackling across the great ocean of the Force like lightning. A tempest that crackled as much from the students, who were excited to see Jaune fight after Initiation and Yang fight _period_ as famous as she was from her Signal days, as it did from Yang and Jaune themselves.

"Then in time with the chime, you may begin your fight." Goodwitch said, the Dust barrier darkening to obscure their view outside the ring - for their focus, he guessed - and the lights overhead dimming ever so slightly to prevent glare.

Overhead, the display chimed its warning gently, and the two slid into the ready, the woman taking a relatively classic and easy boxing stance. Jaune himself slid his off foot forward, his armored side held out warily, palm up defensively, while his other arm turned the glaive in his hand and brought it low and back, the tip nearly touching the floor and the curved edge resting against the back of his calf. A second chime echoed and he flicked his hood up with the Force, to obscure her sight of his face and were he was looking, while the woman started bouncing on her heels.

Finally, the starting bell chimed, and the fight was underway.

"_A hammer fights in such a way as to levy as much damage directly into the bulk of an opponent."_ Instructor had explained to him, panting on the ground and clutching his stomach where the mechanical menace had devastated him a few moments prior. As always, Jaune had made a mistake. And as always, instructor had dealt him a lesson filled with bruise inducing pain and left him reeling on the floor, pacing and watching the young trainee coldly. "_But do _not _assume that they will be slow. Or you _will _die, boy. And _that _would make you a waste of my time."_

The blonde's arms snapped back and away to either side of her body, throwing aside the classical boxer's guard and _blasting_ concussive rounds into the hardened cement of the arena floor. The blast hurtled her forward, the woman tucking her legs in to turn her bodily in the air and a fist rearing back to crush down on him as her arc, expertly made after years training to do it, carried her straight to him. An attack that gave her the speed she needed to close with her opponent, and bring a hammer's devastating power to bear against them.

Unfortunate for her, then, that he'd seen that trick once or twice already, in a spar days prior and in Initiation both.

His off hand curled into a fist and reared back, lashing out in a powerful uppercut that would have driven the breath from the woman, if she'd been in reach. Instead, the driving blow called on the invisible hand of the Force to do it for him. The woman cried out and broke over the invisible ball of raw, primal energy that slammed into her gut with all the gentleness of a cannon, her body curling around it and then plummeting towards the hard ground below. H knew better than to think she'd been defeated, though, and launched towards her, the Force _cracking_ the ground as he leapt.

Yang landed on a hand, letting it collapse in a controlled fashion and rolling across the ground, coming up in a defensive stance with her arms across her chest in time to intercept Jaune's probing slash. His glaive whistled through the air from left to right in a powerful slash, but the woman simply bounced it off an Aura protected left hand, sacrificing precious Aura to send the glaive high over her head and open his guard. The other lashed out and caught him on the chin as he stepped back to evade, barely chipping it but, from Yang, still a _painful_ blow to take.

The blow forced him back, the blonde Force wielder staggering from Yang's sheer force, far outstripping Instructor's own strength. The machine had favored delivering pain through devastatingly powerful, accurate blows, while Yang's blows were pure power.

Grinning, Yang made to follow, but he warded her off by releasing his glaive and letting it spin through the air, a sound like a saw whirring as it steadily advanced on her and forced her to back away. The retreat, he was sure, was less for fear of damage and more wriness for his unknown 'Semblance' and what it could do, and he could sense the lack of true fear in her. Still, the glaive's spinning forced her back and he grinned, leaping back into the fray, the weapon sliding into his hand in the middle of him swinging his arm like it had already been there, sending the blade towards Yang's throat as he stepped in.

Yang leaned back and let the strike land across her chest, Aura flecking away along the blade's length, and then lashed out and caught him in the stomach with a kick. A kick that was to prelude a flurry of blows as the woman leaned in, one hand gripping his glauve's haft to force his guard wide so she could step in and grip the front of his loose robes. Pressing against him, she released his useless glaive and wrapped the arm around his head, holding him there by his hood while her fist _pummeled _into his stomach again and again just under his light armor piece, coming in lightning fast blows that robbed him of breath regardless of his Aura dampening the attack.

"Ragh!" He cried, _pushing_ her away as hard as he could with the Force, the woman's hand yanking his hood as she was hurled away. She landed on her back but turned it into a roll, coming up and aiming to counter him. Again, he sent an invisible hand of the Force into her, this time shoving against her sternum and forcing her down as her gauntlets came up, cracking the fury of her attack.

He felt fire burn along his left arm in long tracks and cried out, recoiling and turning instinctively to protect the limb. The buckshot round, for that was what it was, had torn along his upper arm and shoulder, his focus on the Force robbing him of the normal protection his Aura would have offered. Now ugly, ragged hunks of flesh were missing, red running down his arm while he scowled and turned back to the fight, glaive whistling as he let it spin, launching through the air towards the blonde woman.

Invisible hands not attuned to the Force gripped him and lifted him, pushing him and his weapon away from Yang as the headmistress called out, "Enough! The match is over!"

"My Aura is fine, and I don't yield!" He argued, landing on his feet and catching the weapon as the headmistress sent it to him, blue eyes scowling up at her while red ran down his arm. "I can still fight!"

"You are bleeding all over my arena!"

"It's a scratch!" He argued, lifting the wounded arm to make a show of his lack of caring about the admittedly ugly and painful wounds. "I've fought with a _lot_ worse than this, Headmistress."

"You've been _shot_, Mister Arc, and I will not allow-"

"I yield!" Yang interrupted them both, before Jaune could argue and get in trouble or the headmistress could finish her response. Two blonde's looked at her in surprise and she held her hands up in surrender, smiling nervously. "My Aura's at sixty, his is at eighty some freaking how, so I yield. Probably wouldn't have won it anyhow, he keeps flinging me across the floor."

"...Very well, then, Miss Xiao Long." The headmistress coughed and, more officially, called out, "The match ends in a victory by surrender, in favor of Mister Arc, then. Next time, use your Aura _properly_ to protect against attacks."

"My Semblance takes too much concentration to use and maintain my defence at the same time." He argued simply, "It's always a gamble, but I can't not use it."

"I see." The woman didn't rescind her chastisement though, and she _reeked_ of dislike and disapproval, and Jaun shrugged it off. "Miss Xiao long, accompany Mister Arc to the infirmary, if you please. Explain to the doctor what happened and let him examine Ember Celica if he requests it, it would be in order to better ascertain how to treat Mister Arc's injuries."

He wanted to argue, but knew that sending her along with the weapon was more than reasonable. Hunter weapons were so unique, treating the wounds they inflicted tended to be hard, and having the inflicting party around to explain how a weapon worked was only useful. Even if he didn't feel the wounds needed more than cleaning and bandaging, he didn't argue when Yang came to his side and offered him an apologetic grimace.

"So…" She started awkwardly as they began to leave, "How's, uh, how's your shoulder?"

"It's fine."

"It's _bleeding_, Jaune. Things don't bleed when they're fine." She pointed out as they left the arena, the blonde warrior laying his glaive against the wall beside his locker. He would have stopped to put it away, but the blonde woman shot him a glare when he turned to head down the rows of lockers to do that, so he settled on leaving it in the room instead.

"I've had a _lot_ worse, Yang." A lot worse, in fact. Broken bones, burns, cuts, blaster burns, and so on down the list of what Instructor had put him through. "I don't need to go to the infirmary, I can clean this up with some water."

"Here, it'll keep you from… Dripping." Yang grunted, offering him one of the clean linen wraps the school kept in the locker rooms for students to use. It was little more than a sterile blanket, and he wrapped it around the wound in spite of the slowing of the bleeding if only to satisfy the brawler. "Sorry I shot you, though."

"Don't tell me I'm the first person you've had a training accident with." It was unbelievable, but she echoed of a kind of upset that warranted him asking the question. The last thing he wanted was for Yang to get upset over something like this.

"Oh hell no. I've broken bones, shot people, all kinds of things. Had it done to me, too." The woman laughed, interlacing her fingers behind her head and sighing. "But I still feel bad when it happens, you know? Like, I don't _like_ hurting my friends, it just..."

"Happens?"

"Yeah." She nodded, turning her head just enough to see the ever-so-slowly pinkening linen. "I don't like hurting people, even if I _do_ like fighting. I just… Don't want any hard feelings between us just because I shot you."

"Yeah, makes sense. And, uh, there aren't any hard feelings, Yang. I swear." He had to remember that most people - _normal_ people - didn't accept grievous injury as readily as he did.

Injuries between friends like this, he knew, could sour relationships in a way that he didn't want to risk here, and in a way that wasn't in play with Instructor and Sith training as a whole. Instructor would regularly hurt him in lessons, and usually expect him to learn and train _through_ them untreated unless they were dangerous. It simply wasn't a big deal, and the cultural shock was one that he'd be forced to admit to struggling with for some time.

And now they were settled into an awkward silence, until they reached the wide double doors that lead into the infirmary.

"So," he started, hoping to lighten the mood and raising his injured hand slightly for the joke, "I could use a hand here, Yang. You mind?"

"Okay, listen here asshat… You're only bleeding, you don't get to make like you're a cripple now." She grinned in spite of the complaint to show it was all in play and grabbed the door to open it, bowing at the waist and smiling widely. With an air of a begrudgingly helpful aristocrat, but the grin of a cheshire cat, the woman drawled, "The door for you, _my lord_, since you rinjuries slow you so much."

He laughed and stepped through into the infirmary, glad things had returned to being so easy. A gladness that vanished _very_ quickly when the head doctor, a Faunus woman with a wide grin to match her swishing, lupine tail at seeing his injury, caught sight of him and started to make her way over.

He wouldn't be there for very long, though he sensed it would _feel_ much longer than it would be.

"It's not that bad, you guys. Just a little gunshot and bruising." He complained for the fifth morning in a row, arm still in a sling and Pyrrha carrying his books under an arm. Her own were under the other arm and Nora was ahead of them, holding doors for the two partners and scowling at Jaune like he'd done something wrong. "I can handle myself… At least in walking to class."

"Let's put it to another vote, then." Ren suggested from his good side, smiling and calling out, "Who votes that Jaune has to deal with being nursed back to health?"

Three hands shot up and Jaune scowled, murmuring under his breath, "Assholes…"

Still, he had to admit in spite of his flaccid complaints, it was… Nice to have people so concerned for him, so willing to take care of him. Or, people he wasn't _related_ to at least. His family had, and still did in some times and places, doted on him plenty when he came home, so he was by and large used to that. But for relative strangers, team mates or not they'd only been together for so long, to be so kind and caring?

That earned a small, honest smile from him as they settled in for history class.

"Today, students, we will be discussing the Faunus Rights Revolution."Doctor Oobleck began as they settled in, the learned man ignoring the indignant scoff of Cardin in the corner of a room. Beyond a grimace, at least. Without comment, the doctor explained quickly. "As all of you should know, the Faunus Rights Revolution was a revolution against the discriminatory isolation of the Faunus as a race on the island Menagerie. The Human kingdoms wanted to imprison the race on the island, and they rejected this."

"The reasons for the Revolution are varied, depending on which Kingdom Menagerie warred with during the conflict. However, one fact is certain about the conflict, outside of circles best left ignored." At the, Jaune could have sworn the good doctor's eyes flicked to the young Winchester. But behind his glasses, the young Force sensitive couldn't be _entirely_ sure. "The Revolution was fought for basic rights that all sentient beings are entitled to. Chief among them being the right to move freely unless a reason is given for it to be barred."

"As if one wasn't…"

"Mister Winchester, if you have something to say, by all means. Speak up." The grumble had been quiet, but either for training or watching the young trainee, Oobleck caught it easily. With a polite smile that belied agitation Jaune didn't _need_ the Force to sense, the man asked, "Please, young man. What did you say? What would you like to share with the class?"

"I said," the man started in a sneer, "that there was a reason they were being put on the island."

"And what reason was that, then? Please, I do seem to have forgotten." Cardin hesitated to answer for a long moment and, either seizing it for effect or lacking patience for the man, Oobleck offered him an answer. "Or do you mean the speciesist policies that the Kingdoms less savory leaders wanted enacted? The ethnic imprisonment of a people? I should hope not, as that is _not_ a valid reason to incarcerate people."

"Why not?" Cardin asked, pride nettled enough to fall into the pit Oobleck had _tried_ to keep him out of. Standing, the man leaned on the desk and asked simply, "If everyone didn't want them around, why should we _have_ to let them be around us?"

"Hm. I believe a lesson in empathy might work best her." The doctor answered simply, smiling politely and waving a hand towards the door. "Regardless of your qualifications and paid tuition, much like the Faunus' lost land, homes, businesses and property, I don't _want_ you here in my class. So leave. Or would you prefer to stay in this, a class required for you t pass in order to be licensed?"

"I…"

"Do you want to leave?" Oobleck pressed, "Or, in spite of my wishing you gone right now personally, do you argue you have a right to be on a professional and legal basis?"

"I have a right to be here…"

"Yes, you do." Oobleck agreed simply, smiling like a parent would to a child on the cusp of learning a valuable lesson they'd thus far missed out on. "Just like every Faunus had a right to live, work and _be_, generally, in the Kingdoms. Hence the Faunus Rights Revolution, a fight for those basic rights that I encourage you to enjoy right now. Like the right to remain _silent_, particularly in fields of law but, today, in my classroom as well, Mister Winchester."

Feeling petulant, and sore from his arm, Jaune smirked when Cardin made to sit. And, with a flick of his foot, the chair across the room lifted and slide back silently, just far enough that Cardin _fell_ with a loud thud. Laughter ensued, Jaune's joining the class', and the man clambered into his seat with a red face sour, pursed lips.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha whispered, knowing his 'Semblance' and scandalised but smiling nonetheless. Grinning ear to ear, the Mistralian leaned close and murmured, "You should behave, Jaune. You don't want detention with Doctor Oobleck, you'll be writing papers for a week."

He waved it off, the man was already moving on to discussing the first battle of the war, in Mistral. Instead, he turned slightly to look out of the corner of his eye at Blake, who was sending _waves_ of emotion into the Force. Beside the woman, Yang sat, a hand on her forearm and lips moving as she said something Jaune couldn't here from across his own team and team RWBY both, the slight curve of the desk the only reason he could _see_ Blake and Yang.

Something was going on there, though he wasn't sure whether or not he should care…

'_It isn't like whatever is bothering Blake could affect me, really.'_ He finally decided, shrugging mentally and turning his attention back to class. Oobleck talked faster than _bullets_ flew, so he'd need to pay attention to try and keep up properly.

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"I know, Kitty-Cat. Dust, believe me, I know, he's an ass like nothing else I've ever seen." Yang murmured, giving the other woman's forearm an affectionate squeeze before, now she'd calmed, letting her go and checking Ruby was being kept busy by Weiss. Satisfied, she gave Blake a look on her other side and grimaced at the woman's face, leaning close again and asking, "What's wrong?"

"You know what's wrong…" Blake answered and accused, giving her a sidelong glance.

Cardin was trashing the Faunus, and Blake wanted to stand up for them. But she couldn't make too big a show of it or she'd risk being found out for what she was, amd for whatever reasons Blake had, she did _not_ want that. And while yang could think of any number of reasons, like Cardin's bullying, she'd not yet really figured out why Blake was hiding it from everyone in their circle of friends too. Hiding something big made some sense when you first met people, but now they'd known each other for a while, so she _felt like_ Blake should open up a bit about it. Not just to her, but to her _team_ and, maybe, her friends in Juniper too.

Then again, Yang had _no_ experience with stuff like that except her one friend from Signal who'd hidden being gay for a while. Not _exactly_ comparable, here, given the things Blake had alluded to going through. Her friend had just been shy, and felt weird, about that kind of stuff. Not wanted her female friends, Yang included, to think she was some horndog like most guys were. Blake, though?

Blake was _scared_ of something.

"You know, if you wanted to, you could tell us what's going on." Blake's glance turned hard and sharp and Yang bumped her shoulder against her before she could speak, asking for a moment. Blake gave it and Yang explained, "If Weiss knew what was up, she'd back off. And if everyone knew, like, our teams I mean," she amended when Blake's brows rose, "if we all knew, then maybe things would be… Easier."

"I'm…" For a long moment, Yang thought Blake might agree. She chewed her lip and her gaze glazed over while she thought, fingers drumming on the wood and clicking the pen in her hand nervously. Finally, though, she dashed Yang's hopes. I'm not… Not ready, Yang. Not… Not yet."

"I understand." She didn't, really. But she'd accept it for Blake's sake, even if she didn't understand it at _all_. Hoping to be the bridge she drummed her fingers on the table and asked, low enough Weiss couldn't hear through Ruby's questions about the notes, "Well, if you can't tell them about it… Tell me?"

"I don't..."

"Nothing big! But you need to work on this, on trusting us I mean. We can't be a real team, do as well as we _could_, if you don't trust us." Yang rushed, patting Blake's arm a couple times and smiling gently, to show there was no anger in her words. "Just… Start small. Little things. Okay?"

"Okay, Yang… Okay." Blake nodded after almost a full minute of silence between them, the blonde's leg bouncing under the table anxiously while she tried to wait patiently. Seeing Yang's wide, bright smile, Blake added as quickly as she could, "It won't be anything major, but… I need to work on this, you're right about that."

Yang had learned really well from half-raising Ruby, though. You take your wins when you can get them, and _never_ look a gift horse in the mouth.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**Apologies for slight delays in chapters, had the move and am starting work on original content stories as of the previous Monday. We're going to have the first up on Archive inside a month, depending on people's schedules, and possibly with art included~!**_

_**Thanks for reading and being patient as always.**_

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_**Logist :**_

**Yeah, Blake has some failings, but that's not bad in making a character. People are full of such base failings and failures of logic, typically because they don't **_**notice**_ **the solution or logical failing. This Review, for instance. In it you assert a lot, like complaining that Blake didn't change her clothes or go to another continent, but fail to register some obvious things.**

**Aside from Beacon where Ozpin pulled strings for her, Blake has no MONEY to go anywhere or buy new clothing and weapons. Also, the bow very clearly works, as many people don't register she is a Faunus. Winchester harasses every Faunus we see at Beacon except **_**Blake**_**. Her team also didn't realize. And if Blake isn't supposed to be safe at an ACADEMY OF TRAINED FIGHTERS, then where is safe? Ozpin CLEARLY thinks it is, given what HE stores at the Academies.**

**The same underpay, overwork, bad conditions happened IRL too. You can't just **_**leave**_ **a job that does that for, among other reasons, not being able to AFFORD to. Faunus, like black people, like the chinese, like gay people, and so on, don't want their asses kissed. They want equal rights, and don't have it, even if some of the examples I gave do now.**

**The Faunus are a representation of a history of discrimination and oppressions, and so you can look at history across many nations and see their plight replicated in various ways. The Nazis, for one instance, originally wanted to force the Jewish people - and others - onto Madagascar and Palestine until Hitler realized the issues that posed and gave up on it. The chinese were not given proper equipment - like, and I made this example in the chapter for a reason, helmets - for the job. **

**So I sincerely apologize for any offense I may have caused in my response, and genuinely DO NOT MEAN ANY I just want you to see the character in a different light, and will leave it here. Thank you for reading and reviewing, as always.**

_**Gaspachu :**_

**All pairings are, as yet, undecided. If Blake and Yang do as they did in the show here in this story and naturally grow closer, BMBLB will show up. If they don't, it won't. I can't promise much beyond, sorry, on the case of ships. **

**As for Force users… Maybe~**

_**Greer :**_

**Not really. Her only points were that they could leave if they wanted, which is untrue, and they could unionize if they wanted better, safer equipment, which happened in the past according to Blake - a WF insider and friend of Adam, who worked in said mines canonically and would thus know - to absolutely no success. **

**Really, it was Blake being snippy and Weiss parroting her father. Or, I meant it to be that.**

_**Captain Dick Scratcher :**_

**He could have tried, yes, but he didn't want to **_**hurt**_ **Cardin. Remember that his Force is supposedly his Semblance, according to the school, so they could figure it out. Combine that with the conversation leading up to it and, well…**

**Also, Jaune wanted to be vindictive. Bit of that Sith nature coming to the fore.**

_**Dragon Lord Syed :**_

**She's still got that parental influence, just like canon. Don't worry, she'll get better.**

_**Zenith tempest :**_

**Amber would only be possible if I run down the Force Healing line of things, which is undecided. Is a good suggestion, though, and one noted.**

_**Talon Ibn La Ahad :**_

**As usual, a big, wonderful review from my favorite reviewer. Not a whole lot for me to say in response, though, beyond the obvious 'spoilers' answers I could give. Though I did give you the Yang and Jaune fight!**

**XD**


	11. Chapter 11

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_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

Almost a full month passed after Initiation before schedules opened up enough to give him personal time, and another fortnight was nearly added before he - as a first year - was allowed to go into the Grimm-filled forests around Beacon. The reasons for it were obvious, really. Inexperienced city dwelling Hunter trainees going off cocksure and arrogant could wind up dead, if they weren't vetted first by a number of weeks of combat courses and, of course, the heavily monitored Initiation process. Not to mention the fact that the first month and change would be taken up with orientations, explanations, term start tests, curriculum assignments, explanations of Valean policies for the non-native trainees, like Jaune and Pyrrha, and so on through the chore of academic tutelage.

The problem was that he _needed_ to be in nature every now and again, to center himself and prevent one side of the Force or the other overwhelming his control and off balancing him. _Weakening_ him.

"So I need to go out into the Emerald Forest, to meditate and train my Semblance properly." He finished his explanation, sitting across from the middle-aged woman in her office, the sun low and casting orange rays like fire into the darkening sky.

The office was surprisingly tame fare, considering the prestige that Beacon Academy held in the Hunter world at large. A main mahogany door that led into a moderately large room with a mahogany desk and a comfortable, leather backed chair on either side, for the woman and for students both. Opposite the door that let him in from the hallway, flanked by two massive bookshelves that covered every inch of the walls except what was made up of windows on his left, was another door just like the first. Through which, he assumed from her slightly relaxed clothing and food, would be her living quarters.

"And you want… Permission to violate standard Beacon procedures and go into the Emerald Forest." She asked, sounding tired and stirring a spoon in her tea idly.

"Yes, Ma'am." And he'd prefer permission to do it, too, rather than sneaking off in the middle of the night to handle his affairs and risking trouble. Hoping it would help, he rushed to add, "I used to do so by myself in Ansel all the time. And before that, too, back when I was training to make my way home."

"Because you need to… Meditate, as you said?" The Headmistress asked in clarification, sitting across her desk from him with a half-eaten sandwich on a plate beside her keyboard, the glow of her computer backlighting her face and lending her a somewhat paler appearance than normal.

"Yes, Ma'am." He'd interrupted her meal, but being the kind woman he knew she was now after so long in the academy, she'd set aside her meal to see to his needs. "And, ah, thank you for agreeing to talk to me. I know it's late, and the start of the weekend too."

"It is quite alright." She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. So while he knew she would tolerate him, he also knew just as well that she _really_ wanted him to leave. She'd never say so, of course, being too polite for that. "And this is all to better control your Semblance?"

"Yes, Headmistress, it is." He nodded, sitting in his uniform and fighting the urge to twiddle his thumbs, even if it would definitely sell the 'nervous schoolboy' look he was actively fighting. "It's… It's important for me. For me to stay at the top of my form, I mean."

He wasn't nervous, not at all.

Goodwitch was just _terrifying_, enough for even Instructor to have been impressed, he was fairly certain.

"We have made exceptions to our strict rules in the past. Often to…" He sensed a pang of regret and pain there, echoing out from the woman even though her face and voice betrayed none of it. And he felt his curiosity rise to match it, and squashed it down. "Well. Unfortunate ends, I suppose. Regardless of the reasons behind the decisions and how well informed or intentioned they may have been, lives have been lost. Civilians and students alike."

"This isn't one of those times, Headmistress." He said to the woman as much to himself, pushing his curiosity away until he could look it up online later.

"Oh really? I've heard that before." There was the regret and anger again, echoing out of the woman as loudly as her _words_ did. Frowning, she finished, "I can't even begin count the number of unfortunates from cockiness like that, Mister Arc."

"I see… I understand your worry, even if I don't…. Know everything that happened." He couldn't afford to press her and find out, though. Now was not the time to be dredging up memories that had her already upset. He would get nowhere fast that way.

Instead, he tried to be diplomatic, lacing the truth with some of the falsehoods his family had helped push to get him here to make his argument. "I'm trained, Headmistress. And I've been fighting for years, against far scarier things than the kinds of Grimm in the Emerald Forest. You know my history and what it entails, so you know I am not arrogant here."

"Yet you did not fare well against Miss Xiao Long." The woman pointed out, pinching off a piece of her sandwich and, as politely as she could, popping it into her mouth.

"That's a symptom, Headmistress." He argued, "Not the cause of the problem. The cause is my not meditating properly."

"Why would that cause this kind of problem?" She raised a hand when he started to speak, asking for, and getting, a moment's pause. "Be detailed, Mister Arc. I'm considering your request, and depending on your explanation, I may or may not accept it. So do yourself a favor, young man, and choose your words _very_ carefully."

Now he felt another wave of roiling emotions roll off of her, this time suspicious and dark outright. What she could suspect, he had no idea, but she was suspicious of _something_ around him or something in general, and he couldn't tell which.

"The people who took me in were a small group, fishers and travellers mostly. Most of them practiced a religion that I haven't heard of outside their grouping." There were no details there she could attempt to verify, he knew. There were dozens of wandering, migratory tribes along the coast, hopping between Sanus, Anima and even Menagerie on boats of their own and rented ones. "Out there, Auras are awakened more often than in the city, because of how harsh the world can be. Grimm, bandits, the labor of simply surviving, all can awaken an Aura young."

"Indeed it can." She nodded, pinching off another piece of her sandwich to eat while he went on.

"And every group, tribe, what have you, they all handle teaching people how to control their Auras and Semblances differently." He went on, "The group I was with, and the man who adopted me especially, were highly religious. They practiced martial training to hone their control, and meditation. My Semblance was always more in tune with that, being a mental application much like your own is."

"You focus and imagine, or think through what you want to be more precise, to enact your will through your Semblance." She responded, explaining her own Semblance methodology at least in the generic sense, to see if he would agree. He did, nodding, and she asked, "So how does your meditation help your Semblance _specifically_? And why can you not simply do so somewhere here on Beacon's campus, where you'd be infinitely safer?"

"My Semblance allows me to attune to my environment and… Use the state of it, to augment my control, if you get what I mean." She nodded, and though he sensed her unsurety, he could not confront her on it without raising questions. Questions he didn't want to have to be trying to piece safe answers to, and maintain his important lie at the same time. "I can feel the environment around me, almost like… Like when you take a bath, you can feel the hot water and steam."

"It's comforting, but also _focusing_. It simultaneously makes me happier and stronger, letting me process information and emotions and better myself whenever I can." He went on quickly, before the woman could interrupt with a question or over think what he was saying.

Half of a good lie was controlling what a person thought about, and he'd learned how to do it well enough from Instructor to at least pantomime his skills at the art. "It helps me understand what I am learning and process the information more quickly, and maintains my control of my Semblance besides. It weakens me and can be dangerous _not_ to meditate in a natural place often enough."

"Dangerous how?"

"If I can't focus properly, I can put too much force behind an attack or motion with my Semblance. Suddenly a nudge is a cannonball to the face." _That_ had happened in training quite a few times. Metal dummies crushed and warped under what was supposed to be simply turning them around. "Or I need to focus _too_ much, and miss an attack I should have seen coming, and get shot."

It was a low blow, definitely, but this was an important matter to him. Beyond the homage he was forced to pay to his lie of a background, and the protections he needed for it, he was being entirely truthful. This was as much a part of his training as exercises, diet, and sparring, and he couldn't let it slip away to the detriment and risk of himself and his team. If he had to play dirty to protect himself and his goals, then so be it.

He was, after all, no Jedi.

"Ah, I… I see what you mean, then, I believe. And why you came to talk to me, when I assume you found no other recourse." The woman grimaced at his nod, and then took in a deep breath that ended in an exhausted sigh.

"I'm sorry if I'm being a bother…" She would find some solution for him now, he knew, because she would _not_ risk a student coming to harm when she could, and now he just needed to play the polite student and wait.

"You are not, Mister Arc, I assure you of that much. Our students' needs and improvement are our first priority…" The woman paused for a moment, to consider something, and then turned to her computer and began typing at a speed he only wished he could match. Endless hours of practice, he was certain, had lent her that kind of speed and skill. "I will have your Scroll registered with perimeter security to admit you access on occasion into the forest."

"Thank you, Miss-"

"You will _not_ abuse this privilege by going out there constantly, and your partner _will_ accompany you out each and every time." He grimaced at the second part, but nodded. Pyrrha would need to know the full half-truth he'd told Ruby at some point anyway, and now he had a good reason to tell her all about it. "Further, you will go out on weekends, and if I find out you are taking advantage of this kindness it will be rescinded. Understood?"

"Yes, Headmistress."

"Very good. Yes… Very good." She nodded, taking a deep breath and seemingly resigning herself to the risk she was taking. Or rather, to the risk she was allowing him to take. "Check in with security when you come and go, and I don't mean the droids. Find a guardsman to clear you to leave and enter, and remember your weaponry and armor. Tell Miss Nikos of this as well."

"I will, Headmistress. I swear it." He nodded, smiling at the resolution. It had been easier than he'd feared, getting this cleared the way he needed it.

"Then on your way, young man." She waved towards her door, smiling gently and jokingly adding, "Now if you would leave me be, I would rather enjoy finally having my dinner."

Laughing, he nodded and stood to leave, giving the woman a more respectful nod in farewell as well. The woman returned it, but didn't say anything as he left, and after a moment he stepped out into the hall and pulled the door behind him.

"Well, how did it go?" Pyrrha asked, the saint that she was for waiting out in the hall only staff frequented with any real regularity. The woman smiled after a second and crossed her arms, chuckling, "Never mind, I can see on your face that it went well, Jaune."

"You can?" He blinked at the statement, surprised and worried. Was he so easy to read?

"Oh yes. You have this grin that you always sport when you're happy, and a glint in your eye when you are excited." She stepped past him without waiting for him to react, clasping her hands at the back of her waist as they walked back towards the dorm.

Like that, she looked and echoed a feeling of nothing less than a satisfied, carefree and content student. It was an infectious feeling, and drew a smile to his own face as well as they stepped out to cross a courtyard back towards the student dorm. "So, what was decided then, Jaune? Did things go to plan as you had hoped?"

Around them, lit by the fluorescent, moth swarmed streetlights that were the norm for Vale, the trees and grass were mostly green. But around the edges, buts nibbled at leaves tinging with orange and red, the onset of fall driving them to feast ahead of the cold season. The grass' growth has slowed as well with the same onset, showing even more the worn footpath that had been beaten by feet into the grass and ground, stretching across the forty feet or so of the courtyard.

'The onset of fall, and nature's rest soon to follow.' Or so Instructor would have put it.

"I'll be allowed into the Emerald Forest as long as I don't take advantage of it and spend all weekend, every weekend, out there." He finally answered after a few minutes. "As long as I do that, she said it was fine."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, she didn't like it but… She understands that I need this, and it feels like she's being lenient with me." Or at least, that was how he extrapolated what 'don't take advantage' meant. Better to ask for forgiveness for a misunderstanding than for permission to get more than you were given, he figured. "The conditions are that I check in and out with security, and I, uh, need you to be with me. For protection, apparently. Since we're first years."

"I see. Such is a more than reasonable set of requirements, I suppose." She turned to look over her shoulder and meet his eyes and then chuckled, waving a hand around them. "It is getting cold, and the Grimm could cut you off from Beacon. Better to have an ally to help you, should you be trapped out on a cold night. No?"

"Yeah, I suppose that's true." And when winter came, it would be three times as true, he knew.

"Ah, but fall is such a beautiful season…" Her green eyes turned to him, corners crinkling in a smile as his stomach dropped out from under him and he felt nausea well up. The smile vanished, replaced by anxiety and she turned as he sagged against a tree beside the worn dirt path across the tree-filled courtyard. "Jaune? Are you well?"

It was odd, but something about her tickled at the back of his mind in that moment. Like the way your hairs stood on end and your heart raced when someone told you something foreboding, or you saw something ominous that got to you deeper than it probably should have. Something wrong feeling, that he couldn't place, instead flailing for the answer and receiving nothing but the fading sense of trepidation and foreboding

"Are you alright?" She asked quietly, helping him sit against the tree while he caught his breath. He reached out with the Force, trying to find the source of that malignancy, but only found Pyrrha's worry and, distantly, the echoing, weak emotions of the people of Beacon. Lacking a source for the sensation, he withdrew and turned to look at the woman who asked again, "Are you alright, Jaune? You look ashen."

"I'm… I'm fine, I think." He wasn't fine, not really. He was confused, and didn't understand what he'd just felt. Pyrrha stood and offered him a hand that he accepted, letting her pull him up, and he wondered aloud. "I was told my abilities could overwhelm me if I couldn't maintain them… I wonder if this is that?"

"Perhaps…" Pyrrha swallowed anxiously, smiling and putting on a brave front for him. "I have heard of many Semblances and Semblance types that come with such problems. This just means we will be going out tomorrow to deal with your own, bright and early if you are feeling well enough."

"We'll see." He'd need to, if only to delve a bit deeper and see if he could find where that… Malignancy had come from. Now, he wondered if Miss Goodwitch's own sense of malignant paranoia had come from _her_ or echoed from somewhere else around them.

Tomorrow, he'd meditate on it and find out what exactly had happened, he swore.

When they'd gotten to their dorm, he was still ashen and upset. Confused, the other duo had hopped up, ready to help however they could until he explained that his Semblance had acted up and he needed rest and to head into the forest to deal with it in the morning. At the mention that he'd be fine with Pyrrha with him, and they could relax, Nora had scoffed and laughed outright.

"Oh please, fearless leader, you know better than _that_." She said when he asked what was so funny, giving him a hard stare that showed a fire and certainty that surprised him. "If you think we're sending you off into Grimm filled woods with just Pyr - no offense, P, you're perfect and awesome - you have another thing coming."

"But I'll be-"

"Fine, especially with three relatively well trained team members around you to protect you." Ren cut him off, the trio giving him flat stares and firm smiles to show how very, _very_ outnumbered, and thus outvoted, he was.

"Fine, fine. I know when I'm beaten." He sighed, waving them off and plopping down on the edge of his bed with a groan. His stomach wasn't steady as of yet, unfortunately, but he grimaced and put it to the back of his mind for now and asked, "So what did I miss while I was meeting with Team RWBY? I know you all were hanging out until just a few minutes ago."

"Blake and Yang ran off early to deal with some stuff, while we gamed in the library. They didn't say for what, but Ruby and Weiss both said they had been working together on something for a while now, so we let it go." Ren explained while Pyrrha and Nora ducked into the bathroom to change into their sleeping clothes and they changed in the room proper, for modesty on both ends. "The War game went alright, and we're all headed into Vale on Sunday to hang out. Assuming you feel up for it."

"We'll see." He didn't fancy a trip into Vale, surrounded by so many people, really. But tomorrow he would be able to balance and center himself, and so he was certain he'd be fine.

"You'll be right, come the morning, Jaune." Ren assured him, laying in the bed beside Jaune's and sighing. "I'll make you a home remedy I and Nora made use of in Mistral, it'll settle your stomach and give you energy. Nora is already looking forward to everyone hanging out on Sunday. Yang and Blake said they had something important to talk about."

"All right, all right." Sighing, he fell back onto his bed and pulled the covers over himself, knowing already that he would be going regardless. It was annoying, but he didn't have much choice in the matter. They were his team, and that meant that he needed them on his side if he were to be a hero like he wanted to be. "Like I said, I know when I'm beaten, I won't be trying to argue with Nora."

And besides, Pyrrha and Nora would pout if he didn't, after all. And their pouting was essentially a weapon at this point, even if they didn't compare to the veritable weapon of mass destruction that was a Ruby Rose trademarked pout.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

During the day and early evening, the Library of Beacon was a full place, brimming with the dull and gentle thrum of hundreds of muted conversations. Just hanging out in somewhere more spacious than their dorm but heated unlike outside, studying and discussing training or the curriculums, reading and discussing books, or even helping out around the library for work, the reasons were varied and continued on into infinity.

During the week, few wanted to make the half hour trip, plus line time, _twice_ to get into Vale proper. A couple times, Yang had dragged team RWBY off to see Vale, but even _she_ found the lines and waiting too much for having just a few hours until curfew. Also, Ruby got tired easily unless high explosives were involved and Weiss was a nag about homework.

Really, Yang wished her team had the stamina to keep up with her, but oh well. She'd survive, somehow. Probably by picking on Weiss and how close she and Ruby were, the Schne always turned a bright cherry red whenever Yang did _that_. Especially when she did it in a full library, and had the young woman squeaking protests and flushing red for all to see.

Now, though, the Library was empty aside from a handful of the droids that the librarians employed to put books back on shelves and clean, even if _technically_ the library was open at all hours. If you came too late, the security bots would monitor you and make sure you didn't do anything against the rules, but by and large you would be left completely and totally alone.

"See? No one is here at all, late as it's getting and being Friday." Yang prodded gently, sitting on a bean bag chair in the back of the library. Hands cupping the back of her head she yawned and stretched out on the comfy sort-of-chair and added, "And the spot you picked is great, too. Nice and quiet, plenty of privacy."

"Yeah… I like it back here, I can read in peace." The woman nodded, waving a hand at the brick wall to one side and then to the rows of floor to ceiling history books on the other. "No one comes back here, usually. So it's a good place to be alone."

"And a good place to let your hair down too, Kitty-Cat." Yang pushed, the other woman shrinking in on herself a little on the beanbag while Yang watched her. Gently, when she saw Blake staring at the ground and drumming her fingers anxiously instead of moving to _do_ anything, she pushed, "You picked the spot, Blake. Not me. We're safe here, _you_ cleared it yourself. And you've told me a dozen times how much your ears have been hurting."

"They do…"

"Then take the bow off, stretch your pretty kitty ears out, feel the breeze on 'em." Yang prodded, smiling gently in the same way she had for Ruby when she was younger. For a while, Ruby had been scared to move, once her Semblance had kicked on and she could randomly go flinging at high speed into walls or trees. Like then, she offered, "I'm right here, Blakey. I got your back."

"...Okay, okay, fine. Just… Keep an eye out for me, okay?" Yang nodded and she sighed, flicking her eyes to the end of the shelf at their side worriedly for a moment in spite of Yang's agreement to watch for her, and it being nearly three yards away and dark.

"I gotcha, Kity-cat." The woman assured her, standing and stepping by to stand with her arms crossed towards the opening like a bouncer. It was paranoia, Yang was sure, but she wouldn't say as much and risk offending her pride and closing her up. "Nothin' gets past Momma Yang, you can bet on that."

"I am _not_ calling you 'Momma Yang'." The woman chuckled, Yang's sensitive ears catching the sound of fabris rustling for a moment before her Faunus friend sighed. "Brothers, that's better…"

"Knew it would be." Even on guard duty, so to speak, she turned to look at the woman and smiled. "Your ears _are_ cute, you know."

"Yang…" Blake flushed at the compliment, her velvet ears pressing flat against her hair in reaction. "They're just ears… Complimenting them is weird."

"And my tits are just sacks of fat hanging off my chest, but guys compliment _those_ all the time." To her face less so, but the point was made. She _could_ have gone further and pointed out Blake's oft praised behind, too, but the woman was already blushing and Yang didn't want to push her too hard. "They're cute, and I said so. Just take the compliment already, you bad kitty."

"Yang that's kind of racist…" The woman sniggered, though, and that let Yang know she wasn't serious about the allegation. That and the playful flicking of her ears.

"Nah." She shrugged, turning back to watch the entrance like the bodyguard she was now.

"You can't just 'nah' racism, Yang!" Blake laughed outright now, though, and Yang joined her for a short, bright moment. After a second, the two settled into silence and Blake asked, "So… Are you going to ask about the White Fang?"

"Nope, 'cuz I don't really care about that noise all that much." Blake had told her a few times now that she'd been a member. It was like she _expected_ to be judged and derided for it, Yang could see it on her face whenever she brought it up and hear it in her voice now. "If you start talkin' about your past, I'll listen. But I won't push for information I don't have a right to."

"Don't you?" Blake asked, "You _are_ my partner, my past could… Could affect you. _Hurt_ you."

"And Weiss' last name could too, if some asshat comes after her for it." Yang shrugged, not even deigning to look to Blake for what she saw as a true non-issue. "Grimm claws, a mugger's shiv, some asshat's bullet, I'd get between any of you and any of _it_. Why it's there doesn't matter a lick to me, just that the people I care about are okay."

"But-"

"No buts involved here but yours and mine, Kitty-Cat." She cut her off, finally turning to beam at the woman, who rolled her eyes at the _terrible_ joke and fought to hide her smile behind a hand. Still grinning, Yang called her out, "Oi, don't roll my eyes and then snigger behind your hand. My jokes are funny, damn it!"

"They're tolerable, but I wouldn't call them funny." Blake argued, waving a hand at the beanbag across the low table from her. "Sit down, I can hear if anyone is coming with my good ears uncovered."

"Good ears…?" In response, while Yang sat, Blake leaned forward and pulled her hair back on one side. There, Yang saw two natural Human ears, that the Faunus woman even wiggled in demonstration of their being real. "Huh. But I looked it up, and don't most Faunus… Not have Human ears?"

"Well, it's actually a more fairly even split than most statistics show, especially in the Kingdoms where virtually all Faunus who _do not _necessarily answer the polls have some Human in their family." Blake explained simple, Yang not really knowing enough to bother arguing or overthinking the subject. Blake was a Faunus, she'd know better than Yang ever could, statistics and polls be damned. "It's a vestigial genetic trait, like your tailbone is. Leftovers of evolution, and nothing more. They work, just not as well as my more, er… Refined, I'll say, feline ears."

"Cats can hear better than Humans, and if you have their ears there's nothing wrong with saying you hear better." Yang agreed by way of explanation, offering a shrug and a smirk to show she wasn't bothered. "I'm just here to listen, Blakey, don't look to me for judgement. You won't find a drop of it. This here is a judgement desert."

"I see…"

"More desert here than Vacuo."

"Yang…"

"I hope you don't mind sand being coarse and rough." She grinned, watching Blake's eyes narrow in anticipation of the terrible joke. "Because like sand, I wanna be everywhere. Long as you're there, I mean."

"Gods damn it, Yang…" The Faunus rolled here eyes, falling for the trap Yang had laid, tricking her into a false sense of security.

"Also, in your pants!" Yang crowed, throwing her hands up ahead of the _dictionary_ Blake hurled at her in response. Laughing, Yang added, "Sweet! I can look of 'beautiful' and see a picture of you, now. Thanks, Blake!"

"Yang, stop that! These pickup jokes are terrible, please!" Blake flushed, smiling wide and happier than she had been all day, to Yang's knowing eye.

"Like _paper jokes_? Eh? Ehhh?" Blake hurled another book at her and she laughed. Still smiling, the blonde let her ramble off her faux-insults and hurl another book at her that the blonde brawler caught easily, stacking it with the others.

_This_ was a better, brighter Blake than she'd walked in on. Tomorrow, she'd ask about the White Fang, but for right now she was more content to just spend some time with her friend and let her unwind. Plus, it was fun watching her ears flick around at her jokes and the sounds Yang herself couldn't hear.

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**Okay, so, gonna do a mass Review Response here to keep from inflating the word count too terribly much. But here I will state first :**_

_**I DO NOT MEAN TO INSULT, DISRESPECT, CALL OUT, OR HURT ANYONE'S FEELINGS HERE. IF YOU FEEL LIKE I AM INSULTING YOU AT ALL, PLEASE PM ME AND I WILL EXPLAIN AND APOLOGIZE FOR ANY OFFENSE CAUSED.**_

_**I love my readers, through and through, and mean NO HARM here. I ONLY mean to be clear and concise in my understand of canon. Nothing more or less.**_

_**So, one issue at a time, and I will not be naming names. Further, I have PMs on the issue too, hence the AN response as **_**some** _**expressed they wanted to stay anonymous. Okay, so, I'll start with the simplest things I have seen in Reviews and PMs about the last chapter.**_

_**First, the topic of racism as shown by the show thus far :**_

_**In V1, I believe, we are first told about the historical precedent of racism and Human supremacy in reference to the Faunus Rights Revolution, a war whose date isn't given but which is implied to have given direct rise to the White Fang, meaning it was fairly recent. In brief, Humans wanted to force all Faunus from their homes, businesses, etc, and essentially imprison them on an island. The Faunus took exception to that, and won the following war.**_

_**However, that didn't end the racism, only the attempted incarceration that was a result of it. Faunus are still mistreated in ways that, for those who know American history - which is not all my readers as some mention being Russian (for example) - are very similar to how minorities have been treated in America. Less pay, poor working conditions, disrespect as a **_**race**_**, and go so far as to torture and maim them. **_

_**Adam Taurus, for instance, was made to work long hours in a dangerous Dust mine as a child, and maimed by being branded with 'SDC' across his face. For better analogues, I recommend studying American treatment of Chinese workers on the railroads as a great example, and studying the Trail of Tears for the attempted forced migration to Menagerie. Then move on to Jim Crow laws and how **_**they** _**worked, and note the 'No Faunus' sign in a Mistral bar, designed and hung as a direct callout to 'No Coloreds' of Jim Crow.**_

_**Then read that American history into the show's displayed issues and you should have it down pat. I won't super rant about it, though, beyond this. PM me, anyone, or join my discord to talk at length about it if you like.**_

_**Now for all the 'justify Cardin's bigotry' people out there, WHO I ALSO LOVE :**_

_**Not all bigots are bigots for a reason. Jim Crow proponents just thought, like this story's Cardin, that 'coloreds/Faunus' were lesser and needed to be kept away from 'proper folk'. There are bigots who have reasons, and those who are bigoted and try and 'help' people, and those who change too, typically because they just regurgitated what they'd been told growing up. **_

_**But sometimes, a bigot is just hateful and cruel.**_

_**Weiss for instance was the kind of racist who repeated what she'd been told, she was never a real racist. Cardin, in this story, is. I have stories where he has reasons and changes, but this isn't one. Also, Blake not liking **_**Schnees** _**is not racist, its disliking a lineage. Which is still bigotry, don't mistake me, but a different, lesser kind to my discernment.**_

_**Also, I **_**do** _**write stories where Cardin is other kinds of racist and changes his mind. I just want to point that out, so no one takes offense to what I am saying here. I don't disagree with you, I'm just… Taking a different part of the spectrum of racists, so to speak.**_

_**(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)**_

_**Chris Adair :**_

**Done~**

_**Coda :**_

**Fixed, I made a minor mistake, thank you for noting it.**

_**Omega Ultima :**_

**He relies more on the Force than on his Aura, and my story planning reflects that. I may just take his Aura boosting Semblance and leave it be for simplicity, unless someone has a good suggestion otherwise.**

_**MH4Life :**_

**Yeah, but don't hold your breath, Cardin won't be changing much in this story. Sometimes, bigots are just bigots.**

_**Decode Life Hacker :**_

**Not in this story. As I just said, sometimes bigots are **_**just**_ **bigots. I do have stories where Cardin has reasons, and where he changes. But not this run. Apologies.**

_**Zenith Tempest :**_

**Neither. Jaune's chosen tactic in the fight simply didn't work. Happens, he isn't perfect. It was also cut short by Jaune's wounds.**

_**Melee Smasher :**_

**The subplot is still ongoing. Atlesian personnel literally bar Weiss returning to Atlas for 'people of… questionable nature' and look to Blake. The racism subplot is a **_**sub**_**plot, not the main one. You have to look for it and listen to the characters to really see it.**


	12. Chapter 12

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

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_**If you want to be on the Supporter list, PM one of us for details or join our discord. Server ,.for details. Hope you enjoy reading my stories, and remember to post a Review/Comment to let me know what you liked and didn't.**_

_**So, Fanfiction will not let me link to discord. So, I apologize to every single FF reader for this, but please PM me for a join link. And please consider doing so, I enjoy chatting with you lot. On AO3, the link is viable : **__** /2UZncAm**_

_**If I could trick FF into thinking this is not a link here it is (delete the spaces and turn):**_

_**D iscord . gg (slash) kfhkfUb**_

_**Betas for This Chapter : **_

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

At the end of Beacon Plaza, the huge complex of colonnades, fountains and greenery leading up to the Beacon Bullhead Docks, two paths split off to either side. Both were paved for hundreds of feet, wrapping along the edge of the plateau for students, staff and security alike to walk them to watch for Grimm. Or even to just look out on the woods, though it had the same effect either way. It would be hard to watch the forests and miss out on an approaching Nevermore flock, for instance, just by virtue of _looking_ in the proper direction when they were coming.

Giant monsters were hard to miss like that, apparently. Probably because they were _giant monsters_, but apparently they still needed radar systems or idiots would be caught unaware.

He knew he was being petty, to think like that, but at the moment he couldn't really bring himself to care. His emotions were too frazzled, his balance thrown off entirely by his lack of centering himself. The katas and training had, of course, done their work in staving off the worst of it but now he was so close to relief, it felt all the worse. Like a starving man smelling food cooking, or a man thirsty watching the water boil to safety. In short, suffering was at its worst when relief was in front of you.

Which was unfortunately something he had learned well, between the food problems he'd faced and Instructor being… _Instructor_.

And now, compounding the frustration and agitation, was the damn Guardsmen standing beside one of the two gatehouses that let out onto small, worn paths along the cliffs. Like other Beacon guards, he was a Guardsman of the Kingdom of Vale, suited in light, splinted armor and wearing a red beret to stand out from the black and silver of the rest of his padded and plated armor. On his breast, the symbol of Beacon was engraved in bright red stencil work, to stand out from the silver metal and padded black underclothing that reminded him of a gambeson.

The gatehouses themselves were a relatively more simple affair, made of a large oaked gate reinforced with steel and set into a fortification that looked ripped right out of an old medieval movie. Though these were topped by gun turrets on the rounded, raised parapets, and manned by silver and black drones rather than archers. A modern edge that was needed, heavy machine guns obviously of a _significantly_ higher usefulness against Grimm.

"I understand you're all on the same team, but the special dispensation's paperwork only says his partner can go out with in. Unless she is ill, otherwise engaged, or injured." The guardsman explained again, turning his old, gray head to look at the woman and raising his thin brows. "Unless you're hiding a cast under that armor, I'm going to assume you're fine."

"I am, yes…"

"Then I can't do anything about it, I have to follow the letter of the dispensation." The man shrugged simply, clicking his Scroll closed and sliding it into a small metal slot in his armor for safe-keeping. Rifle slung across his chest, the older gentleman leaned back against the stone of the wall under one of the drone-manned towers and sighed tiredly. "Kingdom Guardsman follow things to the letter, kids. S'just how this kind of thing works."

"But we're his team!" Nora almost shouted, Ren's arm landing on her shoulder seeming to calm her. She gave the appendage a glance, but once she registered it _was_ Ren's, she relaxed and untensed slightly. "We're his team, and the dispensation required him to be accompanied for his safety. He'd be safer with P-Money, of course, but he'd be _even saferer_ with his entire team around."

"Probably." The soldier nodded, "But it doesn't matter. I follow the dispensation, not my opinions around it."

"That's dumb though!"

"No, Ma'am, it's duty." The soldier countered easily, seemingly unphased entirely by Nora's outburst and Ren's hushed admonitions. He was probably used to younger students causing a fuss sometimes, Jaune supposed quietly, arms crossed over his robed chest. "I and all Guardsman follow the letter of law and order, to protect everyone involved. We don't know if and when someone neglects to mention to do, or not do, something for a good reason so we stick to our orders."

"You may be told not to patrol a place ahead of a raid on it, for instance, and so wouldn't enter even if you saw terrorists there for fact." Jaune offered, the man nodding gratefully at the example and giving him a smile. In response, Jaune could only frown, and argue, "But isn't it a fact that the wording of this could very easily be interpreted as aimed solely at protecting me and mine? And so limiting my team numbers would go _against_ your orders?"

"Trying to be clever and play the words of the dispensation, eh?" Jaune shrugged and the soldier snorted, and then sighed tiredly. "I follow the letter direct, not an interpretation. So yeah, technically, the _spirit_ is probably to keep people safe out there. But the _letter_ says your partner only, so it's _your partner only_."

"We could speak to the Headmistress." Ren offered gently, waves of concern rolling off him as he thought. "If we explain the technical failing, maybe she'd order an altered dispensation, or amend this one."

"It would take time." The guardsman warned, face flat while he worked his way through what was probably a tedium to him. "A dispensation takes very little, but an amendment would take a day or two to make it legal and disseminate it properly. And replacing it would take time too, while the old one is removed from the system."

"That's too long… We need to go out sooner than that would possibly take, Sir." Pyrrha argued, trying gently to press him for an exception. Smiling and fighting a grimace, he could see it at the corner of her lips, she even tried something a little more underhanded than he'd have expected. "Surely, you can't honestly be worried about us out there. I mean, you must know who I am, yes?"

"You're a student first, and my daughter's favorite tournament idol second." The man laughed quietly at the second to show he was joking, and after a moment Pyrrha joined him. If only, he was sure, to evade the awkwardness of her trying to use her celebrity status to get her way. Frowning, the man added in a serious tone, "Get the documents updated with different orders, or go out as a pair. I don't care which you do, but I have my orders, and won't betray them. Not for good reasons, not for bad."

Murmuring apologies, the foursome turned and walked a few steps away, where they could talk more quietly and watch the Bullheads come and go in the afternoon light. He didn't sense any agitation from the man, surprisingly enough, even after they'd pushed him the way they had. Professionalism, he supposed, but without a need to worry about it he turned to his team and smiled apologetically.

"I guess you guys got geared up for nothing. Sorry, but they aren't going to budge, I don't think." He smiled apologetically and bowed his head slightly, adding, "Thank you anyways. I appreciate you standing by me, and wanting to help."

"We could break his legs and run for it…" Ren cuffed her on the back of her head, a harmless pat given her Aura and natural durability, and she pouted. Lips pursed, she turned to the man and whined, "Reeeeeeen. You're not allowed to bap me anymore! Jaune is the leader, not you~!"

"Jaune, bap Nora."

"Sure, whatever you say, Ren." He raised his hand and she spun, Magnhild raised warningly and lips pursed, her eyes narrowing while she hissed playfully. Laughing, he let it go and shook his head, turning to look back out on the forest. "I have to go, though. At least for today, I'm sure Pyrrha and I will manage."

"You shouldn't have to…"

"This is already Miss Goodwitch being kind, Nora. We shouldn't be ungrateful." He reminded the pouting, shorter Mistralian woman. Reminded her as much as himself, that was, as he also felt a petulant anger threatening to sprout. Smiling and quashing the aggravation, he asked, "Pyrrha, do you still want to head out there with me? Just the two of us, I mean."

"Of course." She nodded, positively _beaming_ a smile like something had pleased her. She covered it up quickly, though, turning to Nora and offering, "Next weekend, if you wish it, I will feign a cold. That way, _you_ can spend time with our illustrious leader as well."

"But I want to go now…"

"Come on, Nora. Don't pout like that, it's alright." Ren started gently, laying a hand on the small of her back to try and cheer her up. Subtly enough most would have missed it, he saw her lean back against his palm and smile slightly, but the man ignored it and instead finished, "Let's go bake them some muffins for when they get back, hm? I believe I still have some chocolate chips."

"Yes! I love muffins, and you guys're gonna _die_ for more of them later. Ren makes the _best_ chocolate chip and walnut ever!" While she rambled, Ren gently tugged her with him, the girl dragging Magnhild along the ground behind her all the while. The remaining pair watched them go in silence, for a few minutes, until they disappeared behind the colonnades and trees of the plaza.

"So," Pyrrha finally began, turning to him and smiling gently, "shall I be your escort, m'lord?"

Laughing, he nodded, and the Guardsman let them pass without complaint or heckling. He'd had their identification ten minutes previous, after all, and authorized the two of them. Together, they walked down the worn, most crumbled away path that circled Beacon Plateau like a winding road. Every dozen yards, a drone stood watching the forest, there to be destroyed and alert the Guardsman should the worst come.

They didn't mind the duo, though, and the partners made their way in content silence.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"I-I thought you didn't want to know about any of that?" Blake, wide eyed and anxious, stammered when the pair returned to their special corner to hide. Today, Yang had brought bribes in the form of a lunch bag of tuna sandwiches and a new copy of Ninjas of Love, signed by the author and already pressed against blake's chest while she scowled at her partner. "I offered yesterday and you said-"

"That I didn't care, because it was the past, and I wouldn't force you to talk about it when you didn't _want to_ because you felt like you owed it to me." Yang interrupted, leaning back in the beanbag she'd hauled halfway across the library to lounge in. It was more comfortable than the wooden chairs and even more than the recliners they had, after all. "Now, you know I don't feel like you owe it to me. You understand you don't."

"Then why ask?"

"Because I wanted to give you the chance to decide you _want_ me to know about it." Yang explained plainly, adding as gently, kindly as she could, "I want to know about you, but because you _want_ me to. Not because you think I'm entitled to it."

"So you… Want to know what I want you to know?" Blake asked, voice colored with confusion and her face - and flicking feline ears, of course - showing it as well. When she nodded, the young Faunus sighed, pursed her lips thoughtfully and, gently, set her book down on the arm of the chair beside her. After a long moment, long enough even Yang's patience was tested by waiting, she asked quietly, "Where do you think I should start then, Yang? Because I… I want to talk about it."

"You're sure?"

"Yes." She nodded gently, ears betraying her anxiety despite the rest of her being the picture of calm, constantly flicking in agitation. Or, more accurately probably considering all the context, in anxiety. "I need to, I think. Need to move past all of that, and… This is my chance to start, I guess. And stop procrastinating it."

"Only if you want to, Blake. I'm just here as your friend, wantin' to get to know you a little better. Help you if I can, if you _need_ it." Yang reassured her, half-lying in a way. She needed to get Blake on this past soon, the tension with Weiss was beginning to run higher, even if only Yang really noticed it. And knowing Weiss didn't intend for it, she couldn't even try and latch it down on _that_ end. "And with stories, starting at the start tends to be the best place to be."

"When I was younger, I worked with my mom, in the White Fang." Yang's brow raised and, seeing the question, Blake rushed to add. "Before it was violent, back when we did peaceful rallies, boycotts, that kind of thing."

"Did it work? Rallies and stuff, I mean." Yang had always been curious, still too young when the Fang turned more fully to really remember it. Only twelve or eleven, and busy with a broken father and a younger sister she had to mother.

"If it had been working, we never would have considered turning to bombings, robberies and murder…"

"Ah." And now Blake was sad, face pinched in regret and confusion and anger. Laughing awkwardly, Yang waved a hand and tried to lighten the air a bit. "Yeah, guess that's, you know… Kind of obvious. Blonde moment?"

"Is that like a Mulligan?" The Faunus asked, seeing Yang's obvious distress and taking enough humor from it to let her blunder go.

"Yep!"

"Hmm… No, I don't think you get to use being blonde as an excuse." Blake smiled when Yang feigned insult, clutching a hand over her heart like she'd been stabbed and gasping theatrically. Laughing, she added, "And you don't get to use your hair as an excuse anyway. Your hair has nothing to do with your behavior, only idiots think what's attached to you decides how you act. Like me, people always assume I like scratching posts, if I let them see my ears."

"You _do_ like boxes, though…"

"Yang, that's _so_ racist! Honestly, you're ridiculous." She laughed, though, and flushed besides. They'd both seen her make that box fort when Ruby was playing one of her Weiss annoying games a few days ago, even if she'd only been reading.

"You love me, Kitty Cat." She grinned, Blake realizing after a moment she was doing an impression. Of a cheshire _cat_.

"You're absolutely ridiculous, Yang!" Blake laughed again, the sound suppressed behind her hand to avoid annoying the librarians. Or, equally likely, any of the students in the forward parts of the library. Finally, and knowing Yang had been aiming for her to feel better, Blake reclined in her seat and sighed. "The start of me joining the Fang are simple, I guess. My Mom and Dad ran it, out of Menagerie and Mistral usually."

"Your dad ran the Fang?"

"My dad is the Chieftain of Menagerie, leader of the Free Faunus." She explained, rolling her eyes when Yang mouthed the word 'princess' with a brow raised questioningly. Catching her meaning, Blake sighed and explained the dreaded question, "If you mean to ask if I will inherit the, er, well Kingdom I suppose, then the answer to your question is yes. When my father retires or passes away, unless my mother wants it, I stand to inherit."

"Oh my god, you're a real princess…"

"I am _not_ a princess, Yang..."

"Okay, but you _literally_ are a princess, though." Yang pointed out, grinning like a madman all the while. When Blake frowned and shook her head, Yang raised a hand and started counting. "One, your father is the king of a country-"

"Chieftain-"

"Same thing, same thing, now shush! Momma Yang is teaching you about princesses, and every little girl loves princesses." She waved Blake off before she could argue further, and pointed a finger at Ninjas of Love, "You know, isn't the main character there a dark haired princess from a chiefdom…?"

"Okay, fine, you win. I'm a Princess, don't read into my choices in literature, please." Yang laughed and Blake joined her, both knowing the game was at an end and falling into a comfortable silence afterwards. A silence that stretched on to nearly two minutes, before Blake found the right words and began speaking again. "As I said, my mom and dad ran the Fang, so growing up I was… Just sort of involved."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, Menagerie's population even today is smaller than the Kingdoms, and most of our Guards have to stay there. To maintain the peace, deal with Grimm, pirates, that sort of stuff." Yang had always heard about Mistral's piracy problem, and knew the coasts of Menagerie suffered the most for it. "So, when my parents needed to travel for Fang business, their guards would too. Leaving the house almost completely empty."

"And you without protection, and a kid to boot." Blake nodded and Yang sighed, knowing how that song and dance could go. Lien had been hard when her mother, her _real_ mother that was, died for the same reason. "So you had to go with them and just kind of… Picked up being part of it?"

"Little things at first, like sealing envelopes or making signs with some of the other children Fang members couldn't leave behind." Blake said by way of answer, shrugging simply. "We're a close knit Kingdom, whether the other Kingdoms want to call us one or not. So no one minded having the kids around, and _some people_ were happier for it. Lost their own, or just liked seeing kids around camp."

Yang could imagine laughing, giggling kids would lift spirits in a camp doing the work they had been doing. Fighting bigotry, facing attack from people who didn't want them around to be sure outside the 'proper' Kingdom's defences, and dealing with all the stress and rigors of travel could each wear a man or woman down. Combined, it would be unimaginable, she was sure. Family could help through that, and she knew enough about it from experience to know how valuable the help would have been.

Family was the only reason her father had recovered, after all.

"In Atlas, I was at a protest for SDC workers, trying to get them even basic privileges like helmets at all, and a bolstered security force so they wouldn't be dying en mass outside the perimeter around Mantle." Blake went on, the blonde woman simply sitting and listening intently. "My mother and father were there with me, doing an interview. Wanted me and the children there since it was a small, supposedly militarily protected event."

"Supposedly?"

"An officer in command made moves, changed out the retinue that was supposed to protect us. From veterans with Faunus in the ranks, to solely green Humans and poorly maintained, just off patrol drones. And he leaked the location of the press part of the event to… Less than savory people." Yang could guess already where the story was going, but refused to interrupt Blake's telling. She'd spent way too much time and effort getting her to talk to interrupt now and ruin it. "Long story short, the Humans that showed rioted and rushed the Atlesians, who froze up and broke. The droids responded with force when they took damage, the way they're meant to, and people died…"

"Dust…"

"The interview area was rushed by a few of them, these Humans were armed. My father and his guards started to fight them, but my mother was shot in the leg." Blake went on, now staring into nothing like she couldn't even see Yang. Which, the blonde guessed, might be accurate for the kind of memories she was dredging up, even if her face was set and plain. "She must have seen it going south, because she told me to run."

"Next thing I remember is back alleys in Mantle, hiding behind old and ruined dumpsters from Humans roving between the housing blocks near one of the SDC's Mantle mines." She continued, "A trio of them found me, and threatened so many things… And none of them were just killing me. I tried to run, and one of them got their hands in my hair, yanked me back."

"And then?" Yang tried, she really, really did, to keep her Semblance under control. But she could see the light on the books around them from her Aura smoldering and sighed, hands balled into fists. Taking a breath, she forced herself to relax, and the light faded, and she murmured, "I'm sorry… My Semblance is kind of hard to control."

"Like yourself in that respect, I suppose." Blake murmured with a small, wan smile, like she was seeing something she recognized. A smile that bittered for a second, before she continued her story. "A man came and saved me from those thugs. A man named Adam Taurus, I could tell from the mining jumper he wore."

"Mining?" She interrupted, "So… A miner, then? Not a White Fang protester?"

"No, I found out later, once we escaped, that he was a miner. Had been since he was five, and I met him when he was fourteen." Blake sighed almost wistfully and leaned back, letting her head loll on her shoulders and rest on the recliner behind her. Her eyes closed, she finished, "I met him again a week later, outside Mantle at a Fang camp."

"He's the man in your notebook." Yang asked, the Faunus woman nodding even as she grimaced at Yang seeing her drawing of him.

"Hm. He saved my life, and beat the thugs up before we ran. Problem was, they worked as foremen and security for the mines. _His_ mines, to be specific." Amber eyes scrunched shut and, in a shakier voice, she added, "They branded him for it. 'SDC', right over his eye. Blinded him, nearly killed him from the shock and infection, too."

"Fucking hell…" She'd heard rumors coming out of Atlas in academy, all of them had, about that sort of thing. Lynch mobs, essentially at least, maimings, mutilations and much worse. She'd always dismissed them as rumor and urban legends, but Blak had seen it… "I'm so sorry, Kitty Cat…"

"Don't be, you're… A different kind of Human." She gave her a look and smiled to show she meant it, before finally finishing with a sigh. "My father took him in after I told him, introduced them. He saved my father's life, killed someone in the process… And so the modern White Fang was eventually born."

"Damn…"

"Damn indeed." Blake sighed, shaking her head tiredly. "I'm mature enough to know it's not my fault, that the change had been coming for a while, but… But would Weiss think that? Would Ruby, even?"

"There's only one way to know, Kitty Cat." Yang answered simply, offering her a small, warm smile when Blake only chewed her lip in anxious response. Smiling, Yang made the hard sell. "Tomorrow, we're planning on going into Vale. We go to a private restaurant, somewhere Weiss will enjoy, and… Tell them what you are."

"But then-"

"Weiss doesn't need to know the full story, she's not entitled to it." Yang pointed out simply, quashing her fear by removing a large portion of what she was afraid _of_. A simple solution, and frankly a correct one. Weiss didn't need to know every jot and tittle of Blake's life, or anyone else's, and they didn't know hers either. "Friends have secrets, sometimes. Long as it doesn't hurt anyone, it's fine. And being friends with the princess of Menagerie could help so many people, and I _know_ you want that."

"...Okay." Blake finally agreed, taking a deep breath and then sighing tiredly. Like even trying this, agreeing to what yang had suggested, was a feat worthy of titans. "Tomorrow, I'll tell them who I am. Just… Not who Adam is."

"You're not him, you don't need to tell people about what he does like you _are_ him." Yang smiled, genuinely happy the conversation had gone so well. She still had some processing to do, she knew, but it wouldn't be _anything_ that could change them being friends. Weiss and Ruby would be the same. "Now, let's relax and… Talk about your book?"

"No!"

"But I wanna know what it's about!"

"Then read it yourself!"

"Okay, lemme borrow your old copy." Yang grinned when Blake was caught out, eyes wide and panicked and unsure of what to say. When Yang didn't get an answer beyond Blake's mouth opening and closing mutely, she laughed and stood, "Okay, I'll go get it, and we can do kinky story book club."

Sighing, Blake surrendered and held out her new copy, murmuring, "Skim it…"

Yang was stressed out now, thanks to Blake, so the teasing could commence after chapter one.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"So how does this all… _Work_?" Pyrrha finally asked as they walked through the Emerald Forest, following primarily old, worn dirt tracks beaten down by drones that patrolled the area. And students such as themselves, of course, looking for a good training outing against the Grimm.

"What do you mean exactly, Pyrrha?" His glaive clinked as it bit into the dirt and struck the tiny rocks scattered through it, a faint sound that mixed into the air and nature around him.

In the distance, far enough they were safe and close enough he sensed them turning their attention to him, he could feel Grimm moving. It was a familiar sensation, the young warrior able to sense deer a hundred feet north in the same way, albeit those didn't turn towards them. Futilely, he tried to suppress his presence in the Force, withdraw his emotions from the ocean around him, but it was like a man trying to paddle the blood back into his body. Useless, and the trying only wore at him while the sharks circled.

A downside to the Force's gifts, then, albeit one he paid gladly.

"You need to meditate, and it needs to be a natural place. But we've been walking for a while, and you have not done so." The question was clear there, even if she didn't phrase it as such. Or as the accusation it very nearly was either, for that matter.

"This path is worn down by Human feet, and the feet of their creations. Hardly natural, this environment." He explained, honest and detailed outside the aspects of how the Force flowed. A flow that was more natural, and thus easy, in places without Human interference than those who had faced it. "Even the trees have been curated. Those in the way likely removed, to widen the path and make fighting easier, and some replanted to make it _feel_ natural."

"A false nature?"

"Indeed. A false nature, like a mirage or maybe a painting. Made to look real, but decidedly fake and curated." He nodded, sighing as he sensed the Grimm distant turn to them and come at speed, sensing something or merely running together towards some place they deemed worth the effort. "Grimm."

The word had the desired effect, Pyrrh moving a few feet away and sliding a leg back, her shield coming up in front of her at his indication of where they were coming from. To match, he traded his glaive for his saber and pulled his hood up, standing otherwise unchanged in the middle of the path, one end of his saber resting against the base of his right bicep. Two feet in front of him, two feet behind him, and plenty of space for he and his partner to move meant they were in prime condition to receive the Grimm.

They didn't have to wait long, it turned out.

The first Beowolf surged out of the brush around the path, maw wide as it leapt bodily for him. Unbalanced as he was, his fine Force control was off, but that didn't mean he was _neutered_. And so his free left hand shot forward, a wall of raw power crushing the Grimm back and snapping it around a tree beside the path. Looking like a discarded, smoldering sock puppet, it fell limp around the trip and slid to the ground while its brethren burst free with snarls and yapping growls.

They fared no better, of course.

The second Grimm he batted aside and back as he had its leading Beowolf, crushed in a wet heap against a mighty oak and left to vaporize. The third was too close for comfort, and far enough left, that he would have to turn and aim again. Which would take too long for his attacks to land with any potency or accuracy, unless he wanted to grapeshot the attack. Which would rend trees for a hundred yards in a cone of devastation and exhaust him besides.

Staff spinning, he slid a led back to take its charge, armored plate held up defensively as he rotated, instead using the Force to tug him to the side faster, anchored around a tree behind him. Like a ship tethered in a storm, he anchored himself to take the Grimm head on, saber ready to hiss to life when it closed fully with him and disembowel it.

Pyrrha met it instead, leaping between them and catching it in the side of its neck and her spear through its heart. Limp, it fell to the side, collapsing in a rolling heap behind her before the last leapt at her side. She caught its claw on her shield, but it swept into her faster than even she could react, other arm grabbing her armored leg as it forced her down. Hissing angrily at her proximity, he leapt in with his lightsaber crackling to life.

It saw him coming and reared up, snarling ferally as Pyrrha stabbed futilely at its armored, thick hide with her spear, the woman too pressed to reach further down the handle and shorten it. His red blade hissed and crackled as it cut through the back of its throat and, further, out the back of its skull. It whimpered weakly for a moment, the sound nearly lost in the hissing and popping of meat and bone, and he wrenched the weapon to the side to pull it off her. Pyrrha aided him, rising on one knee and sweeping the treeline with her rifle with herself between him and it. Like she was his guarding it.

Which, technically speaking, she actually was right now.

"Do you sense any more of them, Jaune?" She asked, rifle ready to snap where he directed he was certain.

"No, I don't." He'd only sensed four, and wasn't worried about any more. Extinguishing his saber, he thought for a moment and mused to himself, feeling the tempest of the Force fade away. "Offensively, I'm much stronger…"

"I noticed that." The woman laughed, gesturing at the shattered Grimm and remarking, "A small pack, but you basically obliterated them all. Impressive. I thought you were weakened?"

"I have raw power, but no control for it. No direction, or ability to… Mitigate damage." He gestured around the broken Grimm, at that bushes whose limbs had been shattered from the blast that hadn't hit the monsters, and at the splintered bark where they'd been hurled. "Think of a bomb, but one with no way of deploying it accurately. That is my power right now. Are you okay?"

"I am, yes." She nodded and offered him a small smile, spinning her spear in her hand like a baton. The smile fell swiftly, though, and she sighed, shaking her head and bringing the base of her spear down on the ground with a metallic twang. "That was sloppy of me… I allowed myself to be pinned. It could have killed me."

"Your Aura was full, and you intervened to protect me. Because you know how out of balance my ability has me, and that my Aura sometimes fails." A manipulation of the facts, to be sure, but one that seemed to work. She relaxed slightly and, though he could tell she was angry, she eased and nodded. "Now, we can resolve this-"

"Not here we can't. Too unnatural, as you said." She cut him off, walking past the decaying Grimm and calling back over her shoulders, "This way is what looks like raw forest. Let's find you a proper place, and resolve this mess before either of us is hurt any further than egos and grazing shots."

"Alright then…" Spinning his staff, he flicked it over his shoulder and into its sheath and followed the woman through the greenery.

With her leading and pathfinding for them, they walked in mostly silence for nearly an hour. Time spent ducking under tree limbs, vaulting fallen trunks, and at one point fording a shallow river that cut through rocks and winding tree roots. On the other side, they turned west and began to follow it, at times sticking to the mostly navigable trees and roots, and at times walking through the water itself.

Eventually, they found a small clearing, with a depression in the ground filled with crystal clear water only an inch deep at the deepest outside of the center of the depression. At the center was a rock the size of a man, or probably larger considering the way it was buried, indented into the ground like it had struck at high speed. Cataclysmic speed, even, considering the depression it had left, the wide creek flowing into it from one end and out of it the way they'd come.

"It's beautiful…" Pyrrha murmured quietly, shaking her head beside him. "Like-Like something out of a fantasy movie. I'm half surprised there's no sword waiting for a knight in shining armor to pull it free and become king of Vale."

"It's perfect!" Even from here, several yards away, he could feel the stone reverberating into the Force. Like an echo of something ancient, powerful, and attuned in a way he could only have wished for yesterday. "Pyrrha, can you keep watch? Walk the perimeter?"

"Of course." She nodded, calling as he rushed off, "I hope this makes you feel better!"

Stooping low as he walked, his hand dipped into the water, scooping up a handful of the loose pebbles that lined the dirt of the bed wherever reeds hadn't sprouted. With them in hand, he used the Force to leap up onto the stone like a man doing nothing more than taking a step. On top, the rock was smooth and flat, and _reeked_ of the Force.

Just like the Sith Temple had…

"I can deal with it later." He assured himself, sitting on the stone and crossing his legs. It didn't take any longer to feel the Force thrum around him than it did to close his eyes and open himself to it. Still, it took some time to center himself, and find the eye of the hurricane he always occupied, treading water in the darkest part of the storm to stay afloat.

To stay _powerful_.

Minutes rapidly compounded into the first hour as he felt tension evaporate from inside and across him, and his senses began to expand. The first thing alive he felt was Pyrrha, pacing the outside of the pond and waiting patiently for him. Then the trees, birds, insects and, distantly, the Grimm that to his eyes seemed to give the entire area a wide berth. As though avoiding something there, which should have been preposterous.

Yet they seemed to be doing just that, the closest groups equidistant from where he sat.

Another matter for later, he decided quietly, raising his hand with the stones in it and spreading his palm. Focusing, he reached out to touch them with the Force under will, and slowly they began to spin, first in a slow and simple circle and then in complex shapes and patterns. He alternated them rapidly, tuning his fine control of them while he sat and thought. Thought of destiny and falling autumn leaves, images that the Force coalesced around in front of him, almost enough to be material.

A simple red leaf, floating astride the water in the storm in front of him and spreading impossible stillness acros tempestuous waters, his mind settled on.

Instinctively, he reached for it, hand stretching out in front of himself as though to touch the heat there. Finally, his fingers brushed it and he felt the air robbed from his chest, along with a sharp tugging sensation and then pain like fire. Like he'd been stabbed, or impaled even. He couldn't breathe, and felt a hand at his brow, holding him so he wouldn't fall.

Instinctively again, he pushed against the hand, like he was trying to swim against the current. Now words came, accompanying the pain he'd felt so sharply in his heart.

"_Do you believe in destiny?"_

"_...Yes."_

Simple words, echoing around him eerily, but discernible in a way they hadn't been before. A moment passed and he heard the _thwack_ of strings, or bones maybe, snapping to and felt the piercing pain in his chest. Once more, he felt the hand on his head, and once more he _pushed_ against it. Fighting for more. More words, images maybe, he didn't even know himself what he hoped for. It was war fought because his instincts, or the Force, told him he should.

"Gah!" He recoiled like he'd been burned, the stones rocketing away from him in all directions like bullets loosed while he sucked in air and his heart raced.

"Jaune!?" He heard Pyrrha cry, turning to watch her sprinting towards him with a mask of worry. Sweating, he stood and dropped down in front of her, his legs giving out and the woman casting aside spear and shield to catch and brace him up. Faces close enough their noses could have touched, she demanded, "What happened? What's wrong, Jaune? Are you hurt?"

"N-No… I'm okay." He assured her, giving her a look and swallowing anxiously. "Pyr, I have a request…"

"A request?"

"Yes." He nodded, "Ask me… Ask me if I believe in destiny."

"I don't understand, why is that-"

"Trust me!" He snapped, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. Wide eyed, she blinked at him in confusion, and he took a breath. "Please, Pyr, trust me. I know it's a weird request, but please. Ask me the question, I beg of you."

"I don't understand, but… Alright." She nodded, the man releasing her and leaning back against the stone while she took a breath. Finally, she said the words, and they filled him with dread. "Do you believe in destiny?"

"Gods… Brothers, gods, Dust, _Force_…" He blinked as the realization set in and her eyes searched his face, filled with panic on both ends. "I heard your voice…"

"My voice…"

"I had a vision." Her eyes narrowed in confusion, and he pushed off the rock, knowing what had to be done now. With a finger, he gestured at the rock and told her, "I had a vision through the Force. Words, spoken by you and someone else I do not know. Then I felt like… Like I was dying."

"Through… Through your Semblance?" Her face screwed in confusion and, lost, she asked gently. "Jaune, I don't understand… Please, explain what you mean. You heard my… My voice?"

And so he did explain, in full detail and leaving nothing out this time, even as it delved into secrets meant to be kept. For he'd heard her voice, and it was connected to death for someone. Who it was, ranging from Jaune himself, to Pyrrha, to someone else entirely, he didn't know. Only that Pyrrha was involved and he _had_ to save her, if he could. She was his teammate, and that made them friends, bad at that whole ordeal or not, so he wanted them safe and sound.

And a Sith would burn _worlds_ to get what he wanted.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Zen Aku Spirit of the Wolf :**_

**She's… Alright at it, I guess. She does react too much to things, though, and that makes it a bit obvious at times. Though I would point out that, irl, people that don't WANT to believe a thing about someone will ignore obvious tells. A parent ignoring sociopathic or psychopathic tendencies, for instance.**

_**Edgy Bro :**_

**Not a terrible idea, really, though the main arc is kind of already going, and the SECONDARY arc launches in full next chapter, which itself will set up the primary arcs further progression…**

**So yeah. A good idea, but one I largely can't implement.**

_**Knightwolf :**_

**Yeah, I just went back and rewatched their classroom conversation and… Did more of the thing, really. It's just me ripping how they act there and pasting in other contexts. **

_**Red Demon Eye :**_

**Yeah, thus my hints about the future here, while he is unbalanced and the Force is kind of pushing him around. He feels things, foreboding and the like, in the same way Luke and Anakin (for two examples) did. Or Yoda. **

_**Zammy :**_

**In a way, there already is a second Human-Faunus war, with the Fall of Beacon and the attack on Haven.**

_**MH4Life :**_

**Sun was never intended as the romantic pairing, even if HE wanted to be. Blake was nice to him, but even as far back as the Yellow Trailer, Yang was getting called out in relation to Blake. 'Yellow beauty and Black the Beast'. As a writer I saw these pieces at every stage of their deployment, and am overjoyed that the first person to like Blake isn't who she ends up with. It's more realistic.**

**I appreciate the compliments, but I will not accept them when they are based on a misrepresentation of the show. If you want me to break down how well built the ship was, join my server and we can talk, or PM me here and we can. I won't text wall here on it, though.**

**As to your second question, maybe and maybe not. I won't spoil in either direction.**

_**The 2 AM Guest :**_

**The big tell here is that Cordovin doesn't TRY to check Blake out. At all. They have a short-range CCT there, hence the base, that lets them relay messages to Mistral and Atlas. They COULD have called Mistral and been told 'No, yeah, that's Blake Belladonna, Team RWBY, and her father is here helping us beef up anti-Fang security'. Checking out Yang would have even netted Ironwood's getting her that arm, and so on.**

**They didn't, though. They just saw Faunus and refused entry outright.**

**I am glad to have expounded your appreciation of the subplot though! :D**

_**The Anti-Bee (Guest) :**_

**One, ships aren't typically determined when I start a story, so as of now it IS NOT a BMBLB story. Might **_**bee**_**come one, though. **

**Two, I wouldn't warn people anyway. It's my story, and the ship is well built. If someone is immature enough to stamp their feet over a pairing they don't like… Oh well? I won't cater to that, though. And if someone is against the Bees for more… Bigoted reasons, or for being a Monty Truther for instance, I certainly won't **_**bee**_ **catering to them.**

**Three, Their relationship is me copy pasting what they did in the show, AND is a subplot like in the show. So I wouldn't warn of it anyways. Their inclusion is just to explain background pieces coming up in the main plot.**


	13. Revelations, Explanations

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

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_**Grand Priestess, **_**Luna Haile. **

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_**Priests, **_**The Impossible Muffin**_**, **_**Xager the Chaos King.**

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_**If you want to be on the Supporter list, PM one of us for details or join our private server for details. Hope you enjoy reading my stories, please leave me a comment to let me know if you did, or where I can improve. Link here, where able to be seen : **__** /2UZncAm**_

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_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"When I was younger, all I wanted was to be a hero like in the old stories I used to fall asleep to as a kid. A Huntsman, specifically, though. Because… Well, Arcs are Hunters. There's always a couple of us in a generation." He finished, an hour and a half gone by and the duo sitting at the edge of the little pond they'd found, backs resting against the trunk of a great, old oak whose roots wound through the water beside them.

He couldn't see her like this of course, with the trunk between them and both of them facing away from each other, but then again he didn't need to see her to sense her. "I just… You know, wanted to protect people."

"I understand the desire to protect people. It is… Quite a calling, and not something easily shaken." She nodded, and through his renewed, controlled sense of the Force, he could sense her honesty. Though part of that sensation was less his own connection, and this place they had found. A pang of sadness echoed out of her, like a drop in the calm sea warning of a storm, and she went on solemnly, "Many pay a price to pursue this calling. And you have paid dearly, it would seem."

"I suppose…"

"There is no supposition to have here, Jaune." She contested with an odd amount of heat, her hand reaching out to dab fingers through the cool water idly. A distraction, he guessed, from what was going on. "Many of us join with this field of life with the expectation that one day down the line, our lives may be risked. Or asked of us. You understand this, I am sure."

"I do, yeah." His father had beaten it into his head, as had Instructor months and years prior. He'd heard more than a few stories from both that cemented the idea in his mind as surely as breathing was. "You don't train under who I did to be what I am and not know what might come."

"A Huntsman or a…" He heard her shuffle unsurely and then, echoing the sentiment, she sighed and settled on, "A Huntsman or a warrior of the Force? I do not know the proper term, I fear."

"Force Warrior." He supplied simply, remembering the lessons his two teachers had imparted to him and moving on, "And to answer your question, both. Neither Instructor or my father are ones to let someone study this kind of thing and not know the risks. And both being a Warrior as I am and a Huntsman means seeing the worst, most dangerous rogues and monsters to blight this world."

"Such is true enough." She answered, the duo falling into silence for a short time while the young woman simply… Processed what he'd told her so far. He could sense the turmoil in her, though all he could discern when he closed his eyes and tried was confusion and anxiety, not anger or distrust. Finally she spoke, sounding distant and distracted, "Being a Hunter is a dangerous endeavour at the best of times, sadly enough. Such is our calling and, dare I say, destiny as well."

"Destiny…" The vision echoed in his ears at her mention of the word and his grip tightened on his saber beside him until his knuckles protested.

"I asked about that in your, er… Vision, did I not?" He grunted an affirmation and he heard her shift uncomfortably and, in a low and anxious voice, she said, "I do believe in destiny, I think."

"You do?" She didn't strike him as the type, really. "Why?"

"Destiny has a powerful place in the traditions of Mistral, Jaune. Ancient and modern both. Warriors in tales are spoken of with grand fates and destinies inscribed into the very stars. And I…" She chuckled, the sound rolling into a laugh before she cut it off and sighed. "I just realized that you did not spend time in Mistral, as you claimed, and that explains much."

"Because if I had, then I would know why you would believe in and value things like destiny." He nodded, understanding her point easily enough. Had he lived there like his lying said, then this all would be a bit clearer to him. "Why would you ask someone if they believed in destiny, though?"

"I'm afraid I do not know."

"You don't even have an idea?"

"No, I'm sorry, but I can't think of any good reason I would ask someone else something like that." The note of apology was a strong one in the woman's words, and he sighed in response, unable to actually get angry at her when she sounded so broken up about the issue as it was. "Were they Mistralian, I would already know the answer. And were they not, it would be inappropriate to ask."

"Inappropriate? The vision ended with someone's death..." He chuckled darkly at the words and plucked a stone from the water, using the Force to set it spinning around the tree. An exercise in control and therapy he'd learned in Ansel, interestingly enough, that helped him relax and think. "What if… What if you thought they were Mistralian, but later learned they might not be?"

"I suppose I would be tempted to ask then." She answered, "Why?"

"Who do you know of that you thought went to Mistral for years and didn't?" He asked gently, afraid himself of the implications there.

"What are you suggesting?"

"What do you think?" The woman was on her feet in a moment, standing in the water and glaring down on him with more heat and fire than she'd ever shown him before. Her normally gentle face a warped scowl, now, he met her look with a flat one of his own and simply said, "I'm asking the obvious questions, Pyr. That's all."

"Jaune, you can't seriously believe you could be involved with my death."

"To be fair, I don't actually know if it is your death." He pointed out with a small grimace. Her eyes narrowed in a question and he explained, "I heard your question, and then felt the wound and death of a person. I don't know if you died, or if I am there and I do, or if you ask that and kill someone, or any other number of things."

"I would not kill you, or allow you to be killed while I lived, even if the situation were dire and doomed. I would dive before a dragon for you, or Nora, or team RWBY or Velvet." He didn't doubt she would, her certainty and acceptance ebbed like a rip tide in the Force. Tugging at his feet and threatening to sweep them out from under him. "Do not pander to me out of kindness, Jaune. Tell me what you truly think is happening in your vision."

"...You're dying. Stabbed, shot maybe, but you're dying in the vision. And I don't know why." Pyrrha wasn't the type to execute someone or mock them, and those were the only other two options he could see. "I'm sorry."

"I see…" The woman's face paled and her eyes closed, before she took a deep breath and met his own again. Again there was a fire there, though not one directed at him thankfully, and her voice was softer as she asked, "What can we do about it, then? I would prefer not to die, after all. Not if it can be averted."

"We can be wary, and we can grow powerful. 'Through strength my chains are broken', as Instructor would say." He repeated, standing and rolling his shoulders as he took in a deep and grounding breath. "I broke my chains once, I can do it again."

"What does that saying mean?"

"Hm?" He blinked and then chuckled in spite of himself and the situation, calling the rock to him and then kneeling to return it to where he'd found it. "It is the Sith Code of old, of the Sith Empire. Instructor taught me about them, the source of Revanism as I practice it and as he taught it. I… Suppose you will need to know about them and the Codes now, too, with everything going on."

"Only if you want." She assured him, stepping away and turning to look out at the serene beauty they'd found instead of at him. More to relax and try to absorb everything than out of anger than him, he hoped. "I won't press you for information you do not wish shared, and I won't press for more revelations either. I do believe my world thoroughly rocked as it is."

"Yeah, I can sympathize with that at least." He'd gone through precisely the same years ago, after all. It had taken days for him to accept the information, as impossible as it was, and Instructor had been patient through that time.

A rare instance of empathy and gentleness from the machine, that had been.

"You may need to know these things, though. To understand me and what I, or rather we, will need to do to prevent my vision coming to path." He went on, "Visions like these require you to be intelligent and educated to try and prevent them. Else you can simply end up creating the circumstances that give rise to your fall."

"When one seeks to evade destiny they end up fleeing down the road to meet it, be the path straight as a blade's edge or twisted as a snake's flight." Pyrrha nodded, adding after a moment, "An old Mistralian adage, spoken by a weaver of fate in legends older than even the Academies are."

"Sounds familiar…" Very much so, in fact. Enough so that he asked, more curious and wanting something other than literally prophetic death sentences to talk about, he leaned against the oak and asked, "What was the story, exactly?"

"Hm?"

"About the weaver of fate." He clarified, "What was the story?"

"The story has many versions, and so I will simply reiterate the most generic of them. If that is alright? Else we'd have thirty of them to get through." He nodded, not wanting nearly that much of a distraction right now, and she sighed. "Well then… There once was a dark raven with a blade of red, given prophecy by the king of the dead. And on a path of avoidance tread, he only found his friends all dead. But of his goals noble to the last, he accomplished each, of his imperial task."

"That doesn't make any sense though…"

"It's a rhyme to the gist of the story, nothing more. The warrior's name is Raven and he wielded a blade of red in the service of his empire, trying to protect it." She grimaced at that, though, and finished, "The stories all end the same. Raven saves his empire, but it destroys him and those he loves."

"Raven and a blade of red…" It sounded similar to stories he'd briefly skimmed in his studies at the Temple, but so much had been rushed through. Revan fought for his empire too, and with a blade of red, and many of his allies died in the effort. But that wasn't a lot of detail, and could easily all be coincidence. "It must be…"

"Jaune?"

"Nothing, Pyr." He laughed it all off, both his suspicions and her concerned expression. "We need to focus on you, though. You and the pursuit of means to protect you."

"Us, you mean. You and I, and our team, in totality." She corrected him, "I doubt that whatever could endanger me would endanger only me, after all."

"You're right, but for now, we'll focus on the two of us in isolation. Once we're stronger, we can start working on building up Ren and Nora." And then maybe team RWBY, too, if they needed to. A decision for later, of course, but something he'd need to keep in mind. "For now, I don't want them to know about all of this, though."

"Why? Surely they deserve to know."

"I want to meditate on the vision further, try and glean more knowledge. Figure out the specifics of what is happening, maybe, or who's involved outside our team." Not to mention he didn't want to frighten them just yet, they were already strong enough as it was. If Pyrrha and he were the targets it only made sense they receive the most hardening, though he knew Pyrrha would never agree to it. "And besides I… Don't want people to know about the Temple, or the Force, if it can be helped."

"Keeping an ace hidden in its hole?" There was an undercurrent of suspicion and sympathy there he tried not to read into.

"No, trying to keep dangerous information from being too spread around." He answered earnestly, more so than even he expected he would have. Or should have, really. Seeing her confusion plain as day on her face, he elaborated with a wave of his hand towards the rock, like he was gesturing to the issue in full, "People will want the power I have. It's not a Semblance, after all, so they'll all want it for their own ends. If someone were to take Nora or Ren and threaten them, I would be tempted to give over the information. Information that isn't mine to give."

"It's your faith's, not yours." He nodded at the question and she grimaced. "But won't that happen regardless of whether they know?"

"Maybe, but if they know, and my enemy knows my team knows, what do you think they'd do to get it if kidnapping is on the market?" He raised a brow, but she didn't answer, pursing her lips and keeping her peace. He answered for her, to send home his point in full, "A Sith would see which cared more for the other, and torture them to break the first."

"I…" She blinked, "Would normal people do so, though? I would think not."

"A Sith is taught to always expect what the worst Sith would do, and torture is part of our very training. To harden us to pain, and let us use it and fight through it." He'd experienced plenty of both the torture and its explanation to understand the reasons for that. Seeing her revulsion, he headed it off, "It's barbaric, I know. But in a situation of life or limb, a Sith can choose life and cut away the limb for strength. Such is the Dark Side's power."

"It is barbaric, you have that right…"

"No Sith would argue otherwise." Not really, at least. Rather, the crueller, Darker ones would simply say it was a point of pride. To cull the weak who would foolishly aspire to join their ranks. "I'm a Revanite because of that distinction. That bararity is useful, but shouldn't be what makes up the core of one's identity."

"So for you, it is as a last resort?"

"Precisely." He nodded, gesturing away and east, towards where he felt Beacon ought to be, "If Beacon, or Vale let's say, were under threat I would use it. Get myself shot, or let myself get burned, and then use that as a Force focusing aspect. A last resort, as you said, to ensure victory where loss would be unbearable."

"I see." And he could tell from the look in her eye she did, too. "And you fear that this kind of power would tempt people to do evil things to you and yours?"

"The ancient Sith Empire spanned the stars once upon a time. And it was rife with precisely that." She looked confused and he grimaced, realizing his mistake a moment too late and sighing. Pinching the bridge of his nose against frustration, he apologized, "Sorry. Ignore that first bit. What I meant to say was that Sith have a history of exactly that temptation destroying things. Corrupting people around them."

"Are you worried that… We could be corrupted?" He nodded and saw the hurt in her eyes, and the way her shoulders bunched up.

"Pyr, please don't get angry…"

"I would think you'd trust us more than that by now." She argued, turning away but not leaving him behind. She wouldn't leave him alone out here, alone with the Grimm, he knew. She was too kind for that. "We should return to Beacon, Jaune."

"It's a drug." He said instead of agreeing, the woman's head cocking to the side to listen. She wouldn't look at him, and she wouldn't let his mistrust go easily, but he could hope for her understanding at least. "The Dark Side is intoxicating and alluring, like a powerful narcotic. I would throw myself on a sword if you said it wouldn't kill me. But if you were drugged up, injected with powerful psychotics?"

"I wouldn't be able to reason properly…" She murmured, "I'd be out of my right mind."

"Precisely. And people exposed to an easy path to power can have the same thing happen to them. Good people in Sith history have gone mad for the Dark Side." Or rather, in galactic history, as little as he knew of that. He'd only ever read the accounts Instructor deemed needed to make the point, after all. "It's not mistrust. It's me wanting to protect you all from things that you don't deserve to have to deal with."

"I see…" She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, then, shaking her head. "We should return to Beacon now regardless. Before it gets later, or Nora attacks the Guard to get out and check on us. Likely with Ren as her weapon, judging from the types of shows she likes to watch on her Scroll..."

He barked a laugh at the mental image of Nora swinging Ren around like a baton, but nodded. "Lead the way then, bodyguard."

"You never said what we would be doing about my…" She grunted and pursed her lips, searching for the right word, and then offered weakly, "Problem."

"Like I said. We train, and look for anything, anything at all, that can make us more powerful." Through that power, they could break any chains, or so the Sith taught. And even Instructor had seemed to agree with that. "In other words, training and meditation whenever and wherever possible."

"Whenever possible you say?" He nodded simply and she smiled widely enough he almost felt afraid. Stepping past him, she only said, "You shall come to regret that in time, Jaune. You will find I love training, and the regimen I shall put us on will be a Mistralian champions."

"Okay?" He wasn't scared of training, of course.

What could possibly be so bad about Pyrrha's training regimen compared to Instructor's?

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Again, lift the weight with your mind and solve the problem." Pyrrha ordered, pacing around the rooftop they'd appropriated for their private training sessions. Behind him, where he couldn't see, a twenty pound weight lay while in front of him sat a sheet full of math problems. "Simple multiplication and up and down weight lifting should train up your ability to multitask. Hopefully."

"You sound so certain until you add 'hopefully' and 'maybe', you know, Pyr." He rolled his eyes and then closed them for a moment, focusing first on lifting the weight. It was hard to explain how he knew when it moved without seeing or hearing it do so, it was more a knowledge it had, and so he opened his eyes and turned at least part of his attention on the sheet of paper. "Nine multiplied by nine is eighty-"

Behind him, the weight clanged loudly as it hit the ground, Pyrrha's Semblance catching it before it could roll and returning it to place while he groaned.

"Don't fret, Jaune, you… You almost completed the first problem! Yay!" The petulant glare he gave her had her smiling and laughing awkwardly for a moment before she coughed into her first and chewed on a lip while she thought. "You are making progress, though. In all truth and seriousness, I mean. When we started this morning, you would look to the sheet and the weight would fall instantly."

"And now, I can nearly complete one fourth grade mathematics problem." Her smile turned apologetic and he waved her off and stood, stretching a back that had started to get stiff from sitting on the ground. "It's progress, I'm just being petulant because it's not working. Instructor said I did that a lot, but it was part of my learning process, so he didn't mind."

"Nor do I." She assured him gently, smoothing her uniform skirt and sitting beside him on the cool concrete of the rooftop. "Again, you have improved markedly in so little time. You should feel good about it."

"Yeah, I know… It's progress, even if it's not a lot." And even if he didn't think he was making nearly enough to be praiseworthy, Pyrrha was far too kind and supportive not to praise him. "Sun's been up for a while, though. We're probably getting close to breakfast time now, and people will want to head out into Vale soon."

"They will, yes."

"You still want to go out, or do you want to stay and train?" He asked, the woman making a face at the question. "Ask me, I would say we should stay and train. We're on a time table now, before someone dies."

"Isn't that always how our lives are, though?" She asked purely rhetorically, and giving him a smile that assured him of as much. "No, though. I think we should go out, with everyone."

"But Pyrrha-"

"If I am to die as destiny has decided, then I would die happier for knowing and being with those I care for than I would if I spent all my time fearing it." She cut him off, oddly sharp and harsh for someone normally so gentle. Yet again, that fire he'd seen the day before, sparking to life and roaring for a moment before she pursed her lips and seemed to reel herself back under control. "This is my fate, Jaune. Let it be my own choice in how I deal with this, I beg of you."

"I… If that's your choice, then alright. I won't fight you on it." He didn't like it, of course, but here wasn't much of anything he could actually do about it. Even if he wanted to force the issue, which he of course didn't, he still couldn't. She was too strong for him to even have a chance at doing that. "We should get going then, right?"

"Yes, please." She nodded, standing and offering him a hand up. He took it and she tugged him up, the blonde turning and calling the weight to his hand with the Force. She took it from him and smiled, "I'll drop this by the weight room after I tidy up out here and join you all for breakfast shortly. You go on ahead, though."

"I…" He hesitated, sensing something off for a moment, but then shrugged and gave her a nod. "I'll see you in a bit, though. Want me to grab anything from the bar for you?"

"I would quite enjoy a breakfast wrap or three, if you don't mind. Oh! And maybe an egg sandwich?" He nodded and she smiled, kneeling to start gathering up the worksheets and pencils she'd brought for them. Or rather, that she'd brought for him, since they'd focused on him this morning. He watched her for a moment and she gave him a look and a smile, shooing him away, "Go on, I'll be along shortly. If you dally, I won't have my sandwich there for you to get."

"Right." The odd sensation was there, still, but he ignored it and took his leave.

At the bottom of the steps, though, a wave of fear and anxiety hit him as powerfully as a wave crashing into his head ahead of a hurricane. The suddenness struck him and stole his breath, the blonde grunting and leaning a hand on the wall while he processed the surprise of it, and then it was under control. Turning, he looked back the way he'd come and grimaced, wondering if he should go and see her.

"She wanted the privacy." He decided eventually, opting to leave and respect her want to be alone.

It was better he focus on training, frankly, to protect her. Drawing a pen out of his breast pocket, he pitched it into the air in front of him and focused on holding it in the air as he walked. Multitasking was his weakness, after all, and even if he'd never be able to have his Aura up and use the Force at will, he might be able to use small Force maneuvers and not open himself up.

Time would tell.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Look, it's a karaoke bar, right? That means private rooms, so no one else sees you. And a door that I can stand in front of, so Weiss can't run away in a fit." Which was very much a possibility, really, depending on whether she felt entrapped with this or not. "It's a quiet place, though. Nice and homy. This should work for you to, you know, let it all out."

"I'm not sure about all this…"

"The place?"

"No, the place is perfect for this, Yang, I just… That's not the problem. This place isn't the problem." And after, they planned to go to a cafe for lunch with team Juniper. One that served Hunter sized portions, no less, though it came with the pricetag to match that. "It's… I'm just scared, I guess. That's all."

"Let's just get settled in, then. The others should start trickling in here in a little while." Yang pushed, knowing there was nothing she could do for Blake's nervousness except power through it.

"Yeah, let's." Grabbing her hand, the blonde tugged her inside and towards the room they'd booked, only stopping to show the attendant at the front her ID.

Inside, it was a typical Mistralian style karaoke bar, with a little reception area to check in if you'd reserved a room or buy one if it was open. Past the little window was a hallway which was lined with thick, heavy doors, with a stairwell at the end that led up to another floor's worth of them. And at the opposite end of the area, a small bar area, though one that didn't serve alcohol. It was meant more for lounging and eating than drinking regardless, and as they moved down the hall they saw a sparse population occupying the area already. A dozen people, maybe, counting the three waiters meandering around the low seating and black tables.

"This is a surprisingly nice pick, Yang." She murmured as the blonde reached a door, checked the little card she'd been given and then pulled it open for her.

"I picked carefully. Somewhere quiet, somewhere private, somewhere Weiss and you both would like since she enjoys singing and you enjoy quiet places." Yang beamed at her thoughtfulness and waved her into the room, and the Faunus returned with a nervous smile of her own as she stepped inside.

"Well, you did well." She complimented, sitting down on the soft leather couch and scooting around until her shoulder leaned against the speaker system to either side of the television that would display the lyrics for them to sing. If they got to do any singing, that was, once things got going. "All goes well, I would… I would rather enjoy coming back here. Alone or not, I mean."

"Yeah, I-" She paused and turned as a waiter poked his head in, mouth open to ask their orders, and instead said, "I'd love a grape soda and some cinnamon cakes. Blake? Peppermint tea and a tuna sandwich like you usually try?"

"I…" She blinked, and then nodded dumbly, "Yes, that sounds wonderful. Only, not a tuna sandwich. The smell, such a small room. Perhaps a… A breakfast sandwich, if it is not too late?"

"I'll get it out inside half an hour, the sandwich will take a bit to fry the egg." The two women nodded and he was gone, flashing away to deliver the order for them.

"So…" Yang started after a couple minutes of silence, taking a seat beside the door and clicking her tongue anxiously. "How do you wanna… Go about this? I mean, I know Weiss will probably be upset, but Ruby is probably going to just wanna know if you like head scritches."

"Yang, that's racist…"

"Shut up, she's a dork." The woman snorted and smiled at the familiar in-joke and, in spite of herself, Blake returned it. "So, you have a plan for Weiss?"

"Part of me just wants to be waiting with my ears out when she gets here." That would at least get her to notice, if nothing else. Only… "I don't know if that is a good idea, though. What's to stop her storming out right away?"

"She's a reasonable, grown ass woman." Yang argued simply, and if Blake were honest and could ignore her anxiety over the whole situation, she would agree with her. Weiss was far more reasonable than any Schnee they'd ever encountered or seen in the public eye. "I say go for it. Let the kitties out, and keep 'em out. That ribbon should be for your weapon only."

"But what if-"

"You saw what Jaune did when Cardin was harassing someone he didn't even know. What do you think he would do if someone hurt you for it? And what would I do, for that matter?" Yang cut her off, smiling triumphantly when Blake could only nod in response. Leaning back she flicked her head, and her hair with it, in victory and went on, "It would sell being open and honest with her, and a Schnee, from what I understand, would understand you being nervous around her."

"One could hope…."

"Gimme get." She ordered simply, holding out her hand. Blake looked to it and then to her and the woman's brows rose, her hand repeating a demand for the ribbon. After a tense moment and a lot of racing thoughts, Blake sighed and reached up, tugging it off and letting her ears flick and stretch. Yang took it from her and slipped it into a pocket with a smile, "Good girl."

"Yang, that's-"

"Say racist and I will thump you on the nose, and that will be racist." Yang threatened, the Faunus grimacing and nodding understandingly. The blonde's Scroll chimed then and Yang flicked it open, "Weiss and Ruby are here. Coming up now, they just wanted our room number. Are you ready?"

"No, but we're doing it anyways." She answered, pulling her legs up and holding them against her chest anxiously. Ears flicking, she asked, "Should we… Should we warn them, or something?"

"They already know something is up. I told 'em to expect a… Chat." That was a way to phrase it, yeah. "Just take a breath, okay? Got like three- Oh, Weiss!" She stood suddenly as the door swung open, blocking the view between it and the frightened Faunus. "Now listen, okay, you aren't allowed to get angry. Okay?"

"Why would I get angry, Yang?"

"Because… Reasons, okay? Promise you'll keep it cool, though. Sit down, and we all talk. Okay?" Yang demanded, a hand shooting out to presumably catch the woman when she tried to sidestep her. In a firm tone, like it had been wrought out of iron, she finished simply, "This is serious, Weiss. Like, deadly serious."

"...Jesus, what did you idiots blow up this time? I can't afford to fix another crater, if that's what-"

"It isn't." Yang snapped, the seriousness finally seeming to sink in. She heard two pairs of feet shuffle on the carpeted floor and assumed Weiss had nodded, because Yang let her go and sighed. "Okay. Then sit."

"Fine, Gods, you'd think that someone had… Died…" Weiss trailed off, sitting down and staring at Blake for a long moment. Or rather, staring at the space above her head, where her ears pressed down anxiously like they were trying to hide. She swallowed and shakily unscrewed the top to a bottle of water Ruby produced from her little backpack before turning to Yang and murmuring weakly, "Well. I see why you feared I would be angry, at the very least, Yang. And I am."

"Weiss, I-"

"Not at you specifically, Blake, or not right now at the least." Hard blue eyes turned on Yang, sitting across from her with a face that reeked of apathy, and Weiss scowled. "You couldn't have warned me about this? You thought an ambush was the best idea?"

"Didn't consider if it was, really. I picked what would make Blake the most comfortable, and you can be pissy at me for it if you like. Hell, slap me if you want." She shrugged at the affronted expression Weiss gave her and sighed, grimacing and turning to look at the door. "Look, this is a thing for everyone. Okay? So let's just deal with this. I'll apologize later."

"Fine." Weiss agreed, turning a look on Blake and pursing her lips. Her hands drummed on the bottle held between her knees idly, sat prim and proper as always, while she thought. "Why hide it?"

"I'm a Faunus with features I can hide." She answered simply, "You'd be surprised how many of us do it to escape the eyes of people we fear."

"And you feared me?"

"When we first met? Yes. You were just a Schnee, Weiss, I didn't know you. And now that I do, I… Well, here we are." She gestured weakly at the room, and paused to offer anxious little Ruby a small smile of reassurance. "Now I'm telling you. A-And Yang planned a whole day of stuff you would enjoy doing, to make it easier."

"So you were… Scared of me, because of my last name?" Unsure of what to say, Blake simply nodded and the woman glared hotter than she ever had before. "So to be straight in all this, you are letting me know you were afraid of me judging you for what you are, because you judged me for what I am?"

"Yes… And that was wrong to-"

"You bet your ass, Belladonna. Wait..." She blinked once, then twice as her mind put pieces together faster than Blake had hoped and then she pointed a finger at her. "You're one of those Belladonnas, aren't you? The founders of the White Fang?"

"...Yes." She nodded, "And I was a member until recently."

"Blake, what the fuck happened to the plan?" Yang hissed, sitting up straighter at the statement and flicking her eyes to the shocked looking Weiss. "Look, she was a member for a while, but not, like… I dunno, not like the majority of them are, or- Gotta be shitting me, Blake, come on..."

"Are you one now?" Weiss asked shortly, biting the words off as soon as they'd come. Blake shook her head 'no' and Weiss nodded. "And why did you leave? You said you were a member until recently, that is, so when and why did you leave? And why not leave sooner?"

"I didn't leave sooner because my partner, the only reason I was there that long, asked me to stay." That was wholly the truth, too. She didn't even have to be foggy about it, and that at least offered some comfort. "He changed, though, and the Fang did too. I saw it, and I just… I couldn't be a part of it anymore. He wanted to blow up a train full on innocent people as part of our robbery and… I betrayed him. Cut the line free, then disarmed what charges there were."

"Cut the line free… Was this the southern run from Rust-Town to Vale? A week or so before semester start." Blake again only nodded and Weiss blinked slowly, like she was drunk. Or more accurately, like she was processing something complicated. "Blake, I was on that train. My father ordered me to ride with the delivery."

"Gods…" Blake's mouth hung open and her eyes widened before she started, "I-I'm so sorry, Weiss, I didn't…"

"Your sabotage probably saved my life." Weiss murmured, looking her up and down and then sighing like she'd decided something. "Very well. I will need time to process all of this but… But I believe I am fine. So long as you never again keep something big like this from me, I can forgive some understandable trepidation."

"Thank you, Weiss."

"I do have one question, though." Weiss remarked dryly, looking at her ears and pursing her lips anxiously. Then she licked them, shuffled her feet, and asked in a weak little voice, "Is it… Is it racist to ask if you like your head scratched?"

"I…"

"Oh my Dust and Grimm, it wasn't even Ruby who asked…"

"T-This is the first Faunus I have ever spoken with, so I do not know the cordialities, and I am curious!" She huffed haughtily, glaring at the blond and then looking to Blake again. With an apologetic smile, she added, "You don't have to answer if you don't want to. I… I was out of line, asking something like that out of the blue. I apologize."

"...I don't like my head scratched, but scalp massages and having my ears rubbed is rather nice." She finally answered, untucking her legs and forcing herself to relax. Ruby bounced beside her partner and her hand shot up and Blake smiled, "Yes, you can touch them. But be gentle, they're sensitive."

The little woman was across the room in a flash, gingerly brushing her fingers along her velvet ears, and Blake chuckled.

"Um, may I…" Weiss paused, halfway to standing up and wide-eyed, unsure of what to say or if she should say it.

"Just be gentle, and don't get used to it." She answered quietly, glad for something as simple and, relatively speaking, typical as this to deal with. "It's not a thing I normally allow. But for today at the very least, go ahead."

Gingerly, the pale woman joined her partner in touching the flicking little things. She chuckled and, for a moment in the corner of her eye, thought she saw a face in the window set into the thick door. Only for a moment, though, and when she turned nothing was there. Idly, she worried someone had seen her, but then she didn't care.

Who could have seen her that she would care about, after all?

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**!~ Reviewer Response Section ~!**_

_**Random Fandom Reader :**_

**Not a bad prediction, that. The Nightsisters are a decent example of Force based, or maybe oriented is a better word, magic abilities. **

_**Red Demon Eye :**_

**Glad you enjoyed it.**

_**Dr Killinger :**_

**Oh yes, visions tend to only ever cause bad things in Star Wars. Even if, in the end, things tend to work themselves out the visions themselves tend to be… Problematic at the very best of times.**

_**Humber :**_

**Asking why Blake is relevant ignores the entirety of what happens in V3, and Jaune's vision itself, which takes place LITERALLY in what makes Blake relevant. And team RWBY, of course. **

**Not trying to be snipp at ALL there, just make the point. **

_**No More Hashtag :**_

**Need is a strong word to use, and it isn't blanket across all Force users. What is, however, a blanket need is to be in places touched by the Force. Jedi of all ranks, for instance, are fine meditating and training in Temples but that is BECAUSE they are Force imbued. Jaune knows of no such places on Remnant he can get to, and short of BUILDING a new temple, he can't make one. **

**So going off to be alone, isolated and in a place surrounded by nature and ideal for what he needs is, canonically, the best secondary choice. Many Jedi after Order Sixty-Six run and hide in more natural places specifically because it is both easier to hide there and they can train more easily there.**

**The reasons BEHIND that are never stated, and I am simply using my theory for it.**

_**Meteor el Drago :**_

**Being real here? I prefer Lancaster too, personally. I won't spoil the ship here - even if it's obvious, to an extent - but I will say I write ships I don't like. I write the story first, and my desires second.**

_**Shadow Dragon Lord :**_

**So you don't clarify, but was that a joking 'fuck you' or one I should report…?**

_**Talon Scythe :**_

**I will reveal eventually why the clearing is important, and why Grimm avoid it, but know this. Jaune hasn't, and won't, examined the rock while he's there. He's far too distracted at the moment.**


	14. The Next Day, and Coping Mechanisms

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_**If you want to be on the Supporter list, PM one of us for details or join our private server for details. Hope you enjoy reading my stories, please leave me a comment to let me know if you did, or where I can improve. Link here, where able to be seen : **__** /2UZncAm**_

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The next morning was a quiet one, but not of the normal quiet contentment until Nora woke up and latched onto Ren for sweets. No, the last few days had passed tensely while he and Pyrrha trained nightly and the woman fought to suppress her own fears and panic. An internal war he could sense she was losing, though he didn't know what to do about it. His sensitivity through the Force made the ache and fear clear to him. It was tragic, the fate he'd been shown, but she fought through regardless. Putting on a brave face and never once betraying his secrets, even if it could possibly quite literally save her life.

And that was something about her he found very, very impressive to say the least. No matter what, she put on a smile and put her best foot into the ring, acting as though nothing were wrong.

Unfortunately even Nora's exuberance and excitement had been tempered. Not by the early wakeup time, or her lack of sugar yet, but instead seemingly for the somewhat grim mood that had settled on the dorm room since the night prior. Ren and the young, excitable partner he slept near were perceptive in their own right, he had already known that much before they'd come back from the forest. But when Pyrrha sat up and quietly moved to the bathroom to get dressed and showered, ignoring Nora's quips and cheerful good mornings, they exchanged worried looks. Looks that conveyed, more than just worry, suspicion and wonder in a way Jaune envied being able to communicate with a simple look and tilt of the head.

_That_ was terrifying, in a way.

"She's alright, guys." He sighed and in answer to the unasked question there, running a hand over his face when those worried looks turned to questioning ones that they directed at him. Thinking quickly, he came to a useful half-truth and offered it to them with a yawn, "She was just up late with me. Training. We got too into it, took too long and stayed up later than we should have."

"So she's... Tired?" He could hear and feel the doubt in Ren's voice but nodded regardless and stood, tugging off his sleeping shirt and reaching for his clean dress shirt.

The girls liked to shower in the morning, and he and Ren took evening showers to give them their time, so it wasn't a bother for anyone but Nora that he changed here. And she just averted her gaze politely, the same way they would have for her if she needed to change after Pyrrha's shower ran long.

Or vice versa, of course, either of them could lose track of time in the shower after all. It was easier to do that than he'd have thought before his incarceration in the Temple. Time down there was a more distant idea than it otherwise would have been. Instructor didn't mind coming for him when that happened, though, and beating time management into him.

So he was rather practiced at keeping it, if he cared to.

"We were up late last night, training and practicing after dinner was out." He shrugged, not wanting to go into detail about what they'd been up to but simultaneously knowing that if he didn't they'd dig all the harder.

To change the subject, he asked, "Do you guys know where RWBY was last night? They missed out on dinner."

"Heard 'em pop into their dorms last night after dinner. In time for the last Bullheads back from Vale, probably." Nora answered, tugging her blanket tighter around her shoulders and watching him. For what, he couldn't hazard a guess, but for some reason he felt like she was peering into his very being. Finally, she asked, "You and P Money are okay, right? Didn't get into a fight or nothing?"

"We didn't get into a fight, no." Thankfully, that was entirely the truth, and while her eyes narrowed suspiciously and she appraised him with her eyes, she eventually accepted his answer. "We just… Trained and talked, there wasn't a problem between us."

"Hm… Well, okay then." The woman sighed and finally shrugged, turning to Ren and beaming a warm, bright smile. "Renny, can you go ahead and make sure they have some of those cinnamon pancakes I like? They always run out before I get there when I take second shower."

"...Alright." The man nodded, standing and finishing pulling his own uniform together. He paused for a moment to check his pockets and make sure he had everything and then turned to Nora, "Don't forget your homework."

"I won't."

"And leave the conditioner in your hair for five minutes." He added, the woman whining and earning a pair of raised eyebrows from him until she sighed and nodded. "I'll make sure our table is open, too. Orange juice or milk?"

"Orange juice please! And maybe a grape-"

"No soda in the mornings, Nora. You know what happens if you get _that_ much sugar in you." The words earned a long, petulant whine form the woman and she flopped back onto the bed in a display of faked childish offense.

"But Reeeeeen~!" She whined loudly, grinning all the while, "People like grapes!"

"Indeed, and they like a sugar-free Nora all the better." The act was meant to raise everyone's spirits and it worked, the two men smiling and Ren sighing like someone who had suffered far too long. "Jaune, make sure she gets dressed after she showers. Alright? I'll get you and Pyr some food as well. Just in case it takes a while."

"Got it." He agreed, after which Ren waved a simple goodbye and took his leave, pulling the door behind him. Pulling his shirt straight and pulling his blazer on afterwards, he asked, "So, Nora, after classes do you want to maybe join us for-"

"Pyrrha isn't just tired, Jaune." Nora said quietly, watching the bathroom door and no doubt listening to the faint sounds of running water that told them Pyrrha was still showering. Never meeting his eyes but, he had no doubt, watching him regardless she explained, "She was upset last night when you joined us, too. And neither of you talked much, either. Then after you ate, both of you left early to do _more_ before bed."

"I don't…"

"Jaune, Ren and I are both from settlements that got wiped out by the Grimm. And both of us know what people act like when something is wrong, but they don't want to worry anyone." Nora explained simply, finally turning to look at him with hard, bright eyes full of challenge. And an echo of something darker, too, that he couldn't place. "The way you two look when you think no one will see, and the way you answer our questions… It's the same."

"I didn't know your homes had been destroyed by the Grimm." He said it to distract her, but the surprise in his words was genuine. They'd mentioned being Mistralian, of course, and their accents matched as well as their names. But beyond that, they had not said much of anything about it. "I… I'm sorry to hear about that, Nora."

"It's fine. You didn't lead them there, after all." She shrugged it off like she didn't care and, for all he knew, maybe she didn't. Or she did, but in the way someone cared about an old wound long since scarred over but always stinging. Resigned to it and moving on. "What I care about right now is you and Pyrrha acting just like they did. Our parents, their friends… What is going on, Jaune?"

"There's… Nothing like that, Nora." He lied, offering her a small smile along with it. Together, they heard the water stop in the bathroom and he added quickly, wanting this dealt with before Pyrrha came out and complicated matters, "Look, it's personal, okay? And not dangerous to the team, or anything. We're just… Handling stuff. Alright?"

"Promise?" The woman stood, half-dressed in a mix of her uniform and pajamas and not caring in the slightest, and offered her hand with her pinky extended. He hesitated, more for surprise than anything else, and she shook it, "Promise me, Jaune. I'll trust you if you say so, but you have to promise. Okay?"

"I promise." He nodded, twining her pinky with his and mirroring the little shake she gave to seal it.

"Okay then!" She bounced past him and towards the door as soon as Pyrrha opened it and stepped through, a towel wrapped around her head.

"Nora- Aiee!" The woman 'eeped' as the boisterous ginger pushed through and then the door was shut again, with Pyrrha on the other side. The woman flushed, straightened her skirt and then blinked and looked at him, "What was… There's quite a lot of time before classes begin. I do not understand why she would be so rushed. Jaune?"

"She and Ren are worried about you." As was he really, and that was something he made clear in his tone and the small smile he offered her as he sat back on the bed and reached for his shoes. "Are you okay?"

"Of course not." She answered frankly, walking past him and tossing her towel from her head, calling her metal brush with her Polarity and sitting on her bed to brush it back and away before she changed into her dress shirt. "But I'll be fine, Jaune. Eventually. I just need to… Grieve is the word I want to use, though I doubt how applicable it is."

"I think it fits." He chuckled dryly, "At least, I can't think of a better word."

"Then grieve I shall use." She laughed, but the sound was short and sharp. Less airy and light, and more like glass cracking in air far too cold for it to survive. "To think I would grieve a death not yet here… And my own, to the point."

"It isn't a fact yet, Pyrrha." He pointed out, sitting beside her and unsurely wrapping an arm around her in a hug. She stiffened and he pulled away, stammering, "I-I'm not the best at this sort of stuff, but my sister Saph always said to hug someone when they cry. I am told it… That it helps."

"It does, I was just… Surprised." She sighed and reached up, tying her hair back like a woman who'd trained to do it. Which, given the length of her hair, she probably had. Then she smiled and sighed, leaning to the side so their shoulders touched. "Just… Tell me we can survive this, Jaune."

"Tell you?" Is that all she wanted to hear? Him say it?

"You are my friend, my partner, and my leader." She answered by way of explanation. "If you say that it is so, then… It is so. I will believe you."

"I… Won't say that, Pyrrha." She gave him a look, brows furrowed and fear sparking in her eyes, and he explained as quickly as he could, before she made assumptions and grew afraid. Wrapping his arm around her waist for the comfort he could offer her through it, like Saphron had shown him, he talked quietly, "I just… Prophecy and visions are hard to fight against, Pyr. Often, like quicksand, the more you struggle and resist the deeper you sink."

"And you fear that fighting fate may itself bring it to me?"

"I do. And so I… I don't _know_ I can save you. And I won't…" He swallowed and sighed, voicing the words he'd been thinking all day. "I won't lie to you, Pyr. _Ever_."

"Never?" She clarified, watching his face as though a lie he could tell would be etched onto his forehead for doing it.

"Never." He shook his head and smiled thinly. "I don't to my family, either. Those I tell about my past, what and who I am? I trust them. And trust is a boat on a river, it sails both up and down."

"Another of your teacher's words?"

"No, not Instructor's. My dad's, actually, Instructor likes more… Stabbing related stories." He laughed, the smile coming to him easier than it had previously. Pyrrha returned it, and for once in the hours since she was faced with her fate, it reached her eyes and sparked them to life. Like glowing emeralds, turning and reflecting the sun. "I promise you though, Pyr, I will do everything I can to save you."

"I see." She murmured, leaning her head on his shoulder in spite of the dampness still clinging there. He blinked at it and stiffened, again not knowing what to do, and she murmured, "I believe you, then. And I would like a hug, silly as it may be. My family did not offer affection all too often, but your hug was… Nice. I would like more, before we head to breakfast."

"Alright." He answered, letting her have the hug she so desired if she believed it would make her feel better. It was the least he could do, and all that he knew for a _fact_ he could do right now, so he was content with it.

The water stopped a few minutes later and they parted, less for embarrassment neither felt and more because Nora would _never_ let it go if she saw them hugging like that. And on Pyrrha's bed, no less. That was simply a recipe for disaster, or more accurately, death by Nora induced crushed torsos from the hugging that would ensue from her coming to conclusions. That way lay death, as surely as the kind that an attempt to hug Instructor would lead.

When the trio were dressed, they left and headed along with some of the other early-ish risers who wanted first pick at the breakfast bar. Only a third of the students had meandered in thus far, mostly first years showing up 'on schedule' for breakfast and upper years with preferences on the bar they didn't mind indulging. All were dispersed in teams laughing and jeering, partner pairs either doing the same or looking at the doors for their other halves, and little groups made up out of mixes of the two at various tables across the massive cafeteria.

"Good morning. I saved you pancakes, and syrup as well." Ren spoke to Nora, not either of the two trailing just behind her, and she sat beside him and gave him a hug. The two exchanged a glance then and the man turned to them and smiled, gesturing to a dozen or so biscuit sandwiches in the center of the table and seeming unconcerned with whatever concern there had been before. "I have sausage and ham. I didn't know what else you might like, so I'm sorry."

"It's quite alright, we can-"

"Oooh, they're cute!" Nora crowed suddenly, bouncing and clapping her hands like a giddy schoolgirl at something behind them.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"It's fine, see?" Yang assured her with an arm wrapped around her shoulders, as much to tug her along as to make a show of defense. Like she'd snap anyone who said anything about her anxiously flicking, _exposed_ ears in half. In spite of the hot glare she shot toward Cardinal's way that sent the brunette hiding in his sandwich, she added, "No one is even looking all that much. See?"

"Because you glare at them like a rabid Beowolf if they do…" Blake argued it, but didn't tug out of her grip.

"I shall get our meals, you two sit and relax." Weiss said as they reached their table, ignoring wholly the foursome there staring at the Faunus beside her. Likely because she didn't want to engage with whatever they were thinking, unsuited as she was to dealing with situations such as these, Glabe hazarded a guess. "You've both of you enough on your plate without Ruby sans sugar to have to survive."

"You just don't wanna have to sit through _the talk_. Right, Weiss-cream?" Yang challenged sharply, earning pursed lips and the Schnee's heels clicking as she stormed away, tugging Ruby along behind her as she went. "Yeah, that's what I thought… Such a wuss about dealing with this kind of stuff."

"Yeah…" Blake nodded and sat, finding it easier to deal with her friend's looks if se ignored them and acted like all was normal. "I'd call her shy, but… Weiss."

"Not the shyest of the bunch, that's for sure." Yang nodded and plopped onto the bench beside her, giving Juniper a look and explaining shortly and hotly. "Blake was scared people would judge. She's out about them now, though. Any of you got problems, I got hands, alright?"

"Yang!" Blake whined weakly, ears flattening to the top of her head while she hid her face in her hands. "You're being too aggressive, Yang… They haven't even reacted yet."

"I was ready to put Cardin through a wall over Velvet when I didn't even know her." Jaune pointed out simply, reaching for a biscuit and starting to pull it into pieces idly while he talked. His eyes met Blake's and he offered a small, respectful nod, "None of us here are going to have anything bad to say about it."

"Well…" Yang sighed and drummed her fingers on the table, but didn't speak. "I'm just… I dunno."

"You're protective of your partner. Ruby too, if I had to hazard a guess" Jaune filled the point out simply, turning his gaze from Blake herself to Yang and offering another nod of approval and respect when she nodded her assent. Beside him, Pyrrha busied herself with eating a biscuit of her own when he said, "I don't mind keeping secrets for people who are important to you. If anyone troubles her, I won't mind lending a hand."

"Or a saber." Nora quipped playfully, grinning and shoving a hand-sized portion of pancakes into her mouth. "Das our dobs!"

"Nora, swallow before you speak." Ren chided gently in a voice that practically spoke of nothing but exhaustion. Like a parent with a child that was too unruly to handle almost, but existed constantly on the very edge of driving them to surrender. "They are both right, though. We're your friends regardless, as should be obvious by Velvet's presence at our table whenever she isn't training."

"Okay." She couldn't say anything else, too busy watching the rest of the cafeteria around them. After a few moments of quiet eating, those that had watched the table for whatever reasons they did turned away and back to their food.

Aside from a team across the room, with a Faunus on it whose little horns curled down past an ear and along the curve of her chin. A heavy frown marred her features, too, under a barely concealed glare. Blake met her eyes suddenly, curious in equal parts to being afraid on a deep and instinctive level, but the young woman turned away as soon as she did and went back to talking with her team. Something about the woman's lithe features stood out, though, and tickled at the back of her memories.

"Blake?" She flinched at the hand on her shoulder, grip on her fork sliding up to hold it like a knife, but relaxed in the same moment. Lilac eyes full of worry met hers and Yang asked, "Are you okay? You spaced out for a second there, starin' off into space. Someone looking at you dirty?"

"No." She answered unsurely, not knowing _how_ the other Faunus had been looking at her. Not really, at least, or even if it had been _her_ and not someone on her team. Weiss settled on her other side with a plate of potatoes and fish for her, knowing Blake's odd morning tastes, and Blake turned to her and offered a quiet, "Thank you."

"Of course, odd as it is." The Schnee answered curtly, setting a shaker of salt down beside her. "Why _do_ you eat like that, though? It's breakfast. Surely something lighter would do better?"

"It's…" She almost said White Fang faire, their bases often hidden near enough to the sea that they relied on fish and sea game for meat. Instead, she offered a shrug, "It's Menagerie style food. Our climate isn't exactly the best for farming, so potatoes and rice is what we run most of the time. And being sea-based, you _have_ to develop a taste for fish as well."

"Oh so that's-" The young heiress stopped suddenly and her jaw clamped shut. Flushing a dull cherry, she turned away, "N-Nevermind."

"No, what were you going to say, Weiss?" Yang pressed, all aggression lost under a veneer of teasing and a wide, feral smile. The Schnee flushed brighter and stared wide eyed and full of anxiety at the table, and Yang pressed, gentler and with a smaller smile and her voice low. "You can't fix _your_ problems with all of this without addressing them, Weiss."

"But I don't…" The Schnee sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose and practically murmured, "I thought you liked fish because, well… You're… You're, you know…"

"A cat Faunus?" Blake offered, smiling in spite of herself when the Schnee blushed so bright and stammered so awkwardly that she looked more like Ruby caught with the cookie jar in her bed than a mature woman. "You… You thought I liked fish because I'm a _cat_, Weiss?"

"No!" She laughed awkwardly, blinked, flushed and then leaned her elbow on the table and rested her forehead on the palm of her hand. "I mean… Yes, but no, but mostly yes and… I don't know, I suppose."

"I like fish because of where I'm from, not what I am." Blake laughed and gave a wry shake of her head, ears flicking pleasantly now as she relaxed. No one was yelling, after all. Or jeering. Or hurling anything. So she laughed and added, "Do you think I'm so good at climbing for the same reason?"

"I-I… No, not really." Not anymore, she suspected Weiss meant, and when she grinned the young woman flushed again. "B-Blake, you are a fiend and a cur. Stop heckling me! It is quite impolite given I got you your food."

"What, telling the kitty not to bite the hand that feeds her?" Yang challenged, grinning maniacally when Weiss huffed and turned to her food without a comment.

"Hey." Blake murmured, laying a hand on Weiss' leg to get her attention. The girl stiffened sharply but didn't flinch away or turn to meet her eyes and, gently, Weiss moved the hand and arm around her shoulders to give her a hug. "We're teasing you. And thank you, for being so good about all this."

"Yang teases too much…"

"It's how I cope with stress." The blonde explained simply, voice laced with a sense of regret. Or maybe apology was a better way to phrase it, Blake decided, since Yang wasn't the type to _regret_ things. "Don't stress it, I'll cut it for today. Okay? I didn't want to be mean."

"Okay…" Weiss sighed, and then straightened and gave her partner a hard look across the table. "So, Ruby. Where's your weekend paper? I don't recall seeing it in your folder this morning."

"Uh…"

"Dust damnit, Ruby…" Weiss growled and stood, glaring daggers at her and pointing towards the doors back to the dorms. "Come on, then. Let's go finish it, I know you got halfway through since I helped you."

"But there's no tiiime!"

"There's an hour." Weiss corrected as the girl rose, smiling thinly at her obedience. "Grab some sandwiches, and I shall help you finish it up. We have time, though we will have to rush it somewhat."

The girl whined, the table laughed, and then the pair left with Ruby loaded down with enough sandwiches for the both of them. All the while, Blake felt herself relaxing and accepting, letting everything she'd worried about roll away and forgetting about it. The rough spot was done, the awkwardness nearly nonexistent, and what problems there were they were working through. Turning back to her food, she looked back to where the sheep had been and blinked. The table, previously full, was empty now.

And that had her paranoia spiking for a moment, before Yang threw an arm around her shoulders and her Scroll flashed. "Dad wanted to see what my partner looked like. Apparently he didn't buy 'a cute little housecat'."

"Yang!" The woman laughed, "That's… Kinda racist."

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**The Qrow :**_

**Oh he does hide his abilities. But for a very, very clear reason that instructor lays out. And as shown later, if needs must, he will reveal it instantly. He is every bit my interpretation of a pure Sith. Bound by his convictions over even functionality.**

_**The Helper (Guest) :**_

**I thought I did. Correction noted and changed. Thanks.**

_**Paradox Reader :**_

**I would argue Blake and Jaune have comparable, if different, tragic backstories. Jaune loses his best friend and potential lover. Blake, though… Gods, to have a heart that cares for others but be part of a literal race of people oppressed for having cat ears and the like? That is tragedy, as surely as losing an arm or a mother.**

**I won't comment on future story twists and turns, but I do try and build things up properly. I fuck it up, sometimes, but I try. Do understand, though, I write bittersweet endings typically. **

_**Red Demon Eye :**_

**It's almost like I enjoy teasing you all with information. Revan's legend is at least tangentially known, there are locations suffused in the Force, the Force seems to make the Grimm avoid areas for some reason… So many questions~**

**One question I will answer, though, is that jaune does wear armor.. Not when he's going out on the town, mind you, but it's detailed that he wears light armor over his robes in an Ansel chapter.**

_**Zenith Tempest :**_

**I know. But he isn't trying to make her an apprentice, just help direct her. Motivate her, so he can protect her. I will explain that a Revanite isn't chained in the way you detail, though. They strive for power to protect what they love, yes, but like a Jedi they will let it go before annihilating themselves. **


	15. Honor and Duty

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_**Official Supporters:**_

_**Grand Priestess, **_**Luna Haile. **

_**High Priests, **_**Alvelvnor, Gage. **

_**Priests, **_**The Impossible Muffin**_**, **_**Xager the Chaos King.**

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_**Ze Nope Rope, **_**Kaiser Snek**

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_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Several days blended into a week or so after Blake's in a vicious, familiar cycle of training his body to breaking, and then swapping to do the same with his mind. Weekends were spent meditating and resting, so neither body nor mind would break under the strain, but even then he trained. Or, well, studied would be more accurate. Readings on Grimm physiologies, as much as could be observed at least since they tended to kill themselves trying to break out of their need to get at their captors, as well as history and mythology.

Pyrrha made good on her threat to drill him into the ground, and only relenting when the weekends came around.

"What are you reading?" As always, the woman was his escort out to the little pond for his meditation and rest. By now she knew it as a formality, though, once they got to the idyllic place. She straightened on the long rock he'd moved out into the water below his stone for her, her leg armor laid out beside her and her feet resting in the cool water. Fall in Vale was a season of swings and roundabouts, and today was hot enough for her to enjoy the cool water. "You've been at it for some time yet, and with your brow furrowed like a father observing a misbehaving child."

"The book could fit that definition easily enough…" It wasn't making any sense to him, or clearing up any of his questions. Or his confusions.

"Well I quite doubt you can ground or beat the _book_ for its misbehavior." She smiled and rolled her eyes at his snort of derision and sighed, watching the clouds drift by overhead. "What is it failing to cooperate on?"

"The Dark Raven." The man, or woman as some of these tales implied and stated as contradictory to history as _that_ was, was called that in full in Mistral's history. And in others, the person called 'Raven' who he believed to be Revan was called very different things. "The Black Fate, the Imperial Blade, the Red Severance… So many names, but the stories are so similar."

"You think them the same person?"

"I don't know for certain, but the elements… They are all there. All as similar as different versions of the Dark Raven, at least." And given the presence of space faring vessels in the truth of Revan's visits to this world, if indeed he had come here, the distance was a moot point. Twenty minutes in a fighter and the journey between Atlas and Menagerie would be through with. "And that would answer a few things, though it would also raise a thousand and one questions."

"Such as?"

"If this legend is in reference to Revan, _every_ legend is called into question." And he did mean _every_ legend. Or at least the ones that weren't clearly fables. "The Girl in the Tower could be about a woman forced into isolation for over Force sensitivity. It can, when that happens, manifest violently, which would seem as magic."

"And a noble could see his daughter locked away rather than, well…" The woman grimaced and her distaste and anger flared through the Force around him for a moment before it sputtered and then winked out, washed away by her general attitude and the strength of the Force here. "_Tried_."

"Indeed." They all knew what a 'witch' could expect back then, when superstition reigned. "But there's more. The Force can manifest spirits, and even the Brothers reflect that. Light and Dark, starkly represented. It's obvious, looking now."

"So much history would be changed, if this ever came to light…" She murmured, before a thought crossed her mind and she added in an afterthought, "Assuming they were real."

"Of course. Assuming they were real." And that _was_ an assumption, there. It could as easily have been people with Force powers acting the part, or just pure myth and coincidence. The word rankled him, but it was bound to be the case with _some_ of these stories. "My hope was that these stories would mention specific places that I could reference in future. Maybe see if temples are buried near them, or something."

"Planning for the future?"

"The immediate future, if things start looking grim." He met her eyes and she grimaced in understanding. "Pyr, you know that there's no sense in dying, you or anyone else, if we can just _leave_."

"I suppose… Though I fear what could push us both to _that_ manner of flight." The concern was an evident one. Both of them were formidable fighters, and only growing more so as they trained and studied. And backed by an academy's worth of students, there _should_ have been few things that could frighten them, much less force them to flee. "And what of our friends?"

"I would rather they come with us than stay behind." As much for their benefit as his, adding strong allies and friends to his group and protecting them from… Whatever might come, he supposed. "And team Ruby as well, if they're willing or… Or seemingly in danger, or anything like that."

"And Velvet?" She pressed, eyes hard chips of jade that bored into his own in sudden challenge. "What of her team? And what of _their_ friends? Team Ruby are getting on with Sun and Neptune, so will _they _be along as well? If we are to run, how much of the student body will be invited along?"

"What is your point?" He demanded, knowing better from his gaggle of siblings than to argue against her making her points.

"That I won't abandon anyone to save my own skin, Jaune." She answered simply, along with a sad smile that she offered him when he tensed. His mouth opened to argue, but she was there first, speaking over his stammered protests. "I am a Huntress, Jaune. Afraid to die but unwilling to leave people to do the same in my stead. Perish all thoughts of flight."

"Limiting our options is a poor choice, Pyr." He growled, good mood gone as he closed his heavy book and slid it into his bag. She didn't answer beyond a simple nod and grimace, clearly aware of the implications. "You've been thinking about this for a while… Haven't you?"

"You phrased it as a question, but your eyes speak of certainty." Force or not, the woman was perceptive.

Distantly, he wondered just how powerful she'd be with training in the arts, but he banished the thought as quickly as it had come. She wasn't Sensitive, he knew it for certain after so long in such proximity to her. Or as certain as he could ever be, untrained to test that as he was. A sad loss of power that could have furthered their purposes, to her survival and beyond, but such was life.

"I've sensed how distraught you've been, when you're left alone especially." As a result, he'd avoided leaving her alone at all. As losing a battle as _that_ had been, he'd still fought it, and the hypocrisy he felt at his not wanting her to do the same here gnawed at him. "I'd thought it about the vision itself. Now, I would change my guess to it being about what you will do when it comes to pass."

"You'd be half right." She responded quietly, face turning forlorn for a moment before she sighed and began to elaborate. "For a few days, and some even after I moved to thinking about what to do, that was all I could focus on if something wasn't forced onto me. Then, I asked myself what I should do about it. What I should _plan_ to do, terrified or not."

"And you chose 'die with honor' instead of trying to get away alive?" He asked, his tone none too gentle. Or subtle about how he felt about it, judging from her small smile.

"I'm Mistralian, Jaune." She said, as though that should explain everything about her decision. When his eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed in confusion, she added, "Honor and duty matter to me. As much as anything else."

"But what do those matter if you're-"

"If I cast those aside to save my own life, then I wouldn't be _me_. I'd die as surely as I would to any blade or arrow." He wanted to argue that she _literally_ would not, but bit his tongue at the last moment and scowled at the water instead. Seeing how upset he was, Pyrrha sat up and offered him a smile. "Don't be angry or upset yet, Jaune. You know it's not good for you to be, with your abilities. And besides, it is not as if I intend to go quietly into that grim blackness of death."

"I guess that's the plan regardless." Even if her taking away retreat as an option set him off in a way he couldn't explain, he knew arguing _now_ would be pointless. She was set with her decision and wouldn't change it if he started yelling, even if he _so_ wanted to start yelling. "As long as you're sure, Pyr."

"I am, Jaune." And he could sense as well as see it, etched into her face and the way she squared her shoulders.

"Absolutely sure." He had to check and she seemed to understand, though she grimaced. At him second guessing her, he supposed, so he rushed to add. "I just want us to do this right. The risks are way too high not to check every last thing and make sure."

"I am as certain of this as I am of my desire to be a Huntress." And _that_ echoed of a kind of certainty in her that mirrored how certain it was that what went up came down again. Her face softened and she added, gently, "I know what may come, Jaune. Please, I need my partner to support my decisions."

"All right then… That just makes our need of power more desperate, really. If we can't _run_, we'll just have to go ahead and win." With a resigned sigh he gave up fully, at least for now and apparently for her, and ran his fingers through his short beard, idly scratching in thought. Pyrrha gave him a look when he did, equal parts amusement and dislike, and he sighed at the old irk for her that was his short little braid beard. "I'm not shaving it off, Pyr."

"But you would look so handsome without it…"

"My mother says I look handsome with it." He argued, knowing full well she'd likely say he was handsome, no matter what he wore or what kind of hair he grew. A mother was wont to compliment her children already, and when you added in his disappearance and near-miraculous reappearance it only worsened. She knew it too, judging by her smirk, and he added a gruff, "I happen to like it, too."

"I suppose you do wear it well enough." He blinked at the compliment and gave her a look, but she turned away to pull her greaves back on boredly and ignored his unasked question. "We should head back. I promised Weiss that I would spend some time with her studying."

"I-I'm planning to challenge Yang to a spar later, too." She hummed and he grimaced at his stammer, taken aback by her suddenly complimenting him. What had spurred that on? Yang was the tease, not Pyrrha. Eventually, he gave up and simply agreed, "We should head back. We don't want to be out too long or Miss Goodwitch will get upset, especially if she finds out I'm reading old fairy tales."

"It's studying." Pyrrha argued, which was a fair point to make. "She shouldn't mind you studying while you meditate."

"These aren't exactly on the curriculum, Pyr." He countered, standing and calling his saber to his hand before sliding it home in his pack. "But even if you're right, which you might be," he added that to make sure she knew he wasn't debating the matter, and avoid that potential landmine, "I would still rather not have to deal with the argument in the first place."

"Fair enough, I suppose." She conceded, turning when he leapt down from the rock to join her on hers.

As always, before they left, he gave the boulder a long and pensive look, wondering what exactly made it so special. Eventually though, also as always, he turned and left with not a single answer to his questions.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"You sure 'bout this? Our last fight went pretty damn badly for you." There was guilt in Yang's eyes as she said that, leaning against the door of her dorm in her sleeping clothes. He caught sight of silver eyes behind her, peeking out from under a blanket anxiously, and she added, "Don't wanna, you know, take off your arm or nothin'. Losing a limb can end a Huntsman's career, and over a spar? Not worth it."

"You don't have to worry about it." He assured her. Pyrrha had spent hours, over days, hucking rocks at him hard enough to leave welts, and left plenty until he could snap back and forth alternating Aura and the Force. "I'm working on that problem, you won't hurt me again. And I want a real spar against you. One that isn't ended for some scratches."

"I shot you, Jaune." Yang argued, "With _shrapnel shells_."

"You grazed me at best, Yang." Pyrrh scoffed and pushed her their dorm's door open, heading off to rest or get some alone time to cope with everything.

"I saw bone!" She countered loudly, running a hand over her face when he waved the concern off and asking instead, "Why does something like that not even phase you? Wait, do I even _want_ to know?"

"Probably not, no. I doubt you would approve my Master's, er, training style." She was ever the maternal, nurturing kind, he knew. And for that reason, he doubted she would be happy with the way he'd been trained, even if it had worked out. "Let's just say I'm very, very tolerant to pain. And it can fuel my abilities as well, pain and anger I mean, so I don't mind."

"I do, though…"

"I've been training specifically to fix what happened in our spar. And have you seen it occur since that time? Even once?" She opened her mouth to speak and he cut her off, "You can break someone's nose _through_ Aura, and mine didn't even break all the way. It just got tweaked bad enough to bleed."

"You really wanna spar?"

"I do, yeah." He needed to prove to himself that he could take her on, for purely petty reasons. And he was very aware they were petty, him simply not _liking_ that their fight hadn't actually reached a satisfactory conclusion. "And you can't honestly mean to tell me that you were satisfied by the end of our match."

"Satisfied…?"

"I mean, _I_ know I can beat you easily, now." He saw her concern vanish as his teasing barb took shape but ignored it, sighing theatrically and turning to leave. The woman followed a step behind as he reached for his door, and he could sense her emotions whirl with his words, cleverly placed to tease her into her competitive bent. "I guess Nora may prefer to spar with me instead, since you're scared to lose."

"Scared?" She laughed, "I'm not scared to lose to you, Shaggy."

"Oh?" Hook, line, and so the saying went, he supposed as he turned to give her a surprised look. He could seen in her eyes she knew he was teasing, and sense it as well, of course. But such was the game. "If you feel that way, then meet me in say… Twenty minutes? Sparring arena three?"

"I'll be there, and I'll beat you into a square. Just remember that you asked for it, Jauney Boy." She promised hotly, grinning ear to ear as she shut the door to get dressed and tell her team where she was going.

Rather than wait for her to be ready and walk with him, he turned to head that way and smile. It would be nice not to have to deal with her walking on eggshells around him after what had happened. For a while, he focused on the fight to come, and how he planned on moving and countering against Yang to vett how he would do so against others who fought like her in the future.

An important step, to be sure.

But sadly it was not that which dominated his mind as, still armed and armored from his trek into the woods, he sat down in the small arena's surrounding seats to wait for her. Like the far larger main arena where classes were held, students were sitting around it to watch whatever spars came while they studied. Whether studying books or other styles, it was ultimately the same in being the pursuit of power.

And it was also all the same in that none of it managed to hold his attention either.

Swiftly, as always, his thoughts turned inward and to his partner, and his vision. He'd tried a dozen times to reach out for that vision and glean more from it, but always to no avail. Once, he managed to hear it again, but only an echo of words he'd already heard. So echoing and samey as what he'd already heard and felt, in fact, that even now he wondered if that had been merely a dream.

So for now, he'd given up, and turned to how to _survive_ his vision with his partner intact. And she'd shot down fully half his plans, for 'honor' and 'duty'. Virtues he did value, but not when it led to someone being wasted so blatantly. What good was the kind of honor that sent someone to die pointlessly, after all? Like Instructor had said in between beating him into the hard Temple floor, 'honor is as pointless as everything else for the dead'.

"Not that she would listen to that… Too much Mistralian honor baked into her head." Alone, he allowed himself to almost snarl, and slammed a hand down into the bench beside him. No one paid him any mind, of course, too enraptured by the students testing out flashy moves on the floor of the training arena. "The stubborn idiot! She's going to get herself killed for some petty sense of honor, going like that."

"Did I… Come at a bad time?" He flinched and rose, the Force instinctively reaching out for his saber before he could catch himself. Blake blinked, startled, and stepped back from him with an eye on the weapon, wary in the way someone used to fighting was but comfortable in the way of someone used to being safe. "I believe the saying is 'don't take my head off'? I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's… Fine." He sighed, returning to his seat and waving off the looks the other students were giving him now. "I was just distracted, Blake. I'm sorry." Enough that he'd reacted on instinct, and not even noticed her coming… "You know how reactions can be, when you get lost in thought."

"It happens to the best of us." She shrugged finally, taking a seat beside him when he offered it and smiling, "Ruby does it often, in fact. She's nearly broken lockers quite a few times with Crescent Rose."

"Yeah, she gets nervous about spars or field work and suddenly a door has a new dent." It had happened at least half a dozen times already, which while not _terrible_ was definitely not a mark of success. "Like you said, though. Happens to the best of us."

"So are you nervous, then?" He gave her a look and she shrugged, "Since you reacted that way, and Ruby's reason is nerves, is yours the same? Or something else?"

"Nerves, I guess." He answered, which wasn't actually untrue, even if she couldn't possibly have any idea about what had him nervous. "I'll be fine, though."

"Yang isn't _that_ bad…"

"I'm not nervous about sparring with Yang." He snorted, shaking his head at her reaching the obvious conclusion.

"Then what has you so nervous?" She asked, her ears, now bare, flicking at the disparate sounds in the room but simultaneously turning towards him. A tell of hers that she was paying attention, he supposed. Like an actual cat's tell, the little bastards always well aware that you were talking to them. "If you don't mind me asking, I mean."

"And if I do?" She only shrugged in answer and he snorted a laugh. For once, he went with the out and out lie, and simply shrugged himself and said, "It's nothing. Just stupid stuff with my team. It's fine."

"Are you sure?" She asked, pushing only as far as he knew she felt she ought to in order to be a good friend. "I'm here if you need to talk. I got my own problems off my chest, more or less, so there's space on the shelf now."

"It's not something I can talk about by myself even if I wanted to." Which he really, _really_ didn't. Just the sheer mass of questions that would be asked was more than enough of a prohibiting factor for that to be the case. "Kinda like if Yang had gone off to me to talk about your ears."

"Ah. I-I see what you mean..." As usual, she seemed to nearly shut down at the words, still not _quite_ used to them being brought up. Her ears flattened and, anxious, her eyes flicked around the room like she was looking for Grimm. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be nosy or anything, Jaune. I only wanted to-"

"Offer me help." He acknowledged, already understanding her reasoning and smiling to show his gratitude. "It's fine, you're a good friend to do that, even when you're clearly uncomfortable doing it. Not for bad reasons, I'm sure, but rather because you just aren't one to prod."

"I'm not, no…" She grimaced and added quickly, before he could presumably take offense. "But if you need to talk, and choose to speak to me, that's fine. I won't turn you away. It would be wrong of me to do that, after everything Yang did for me."

"I know, Blake. I know." She was a good friend, if a more standoffish one. He spotted Yang approaching and pointed to her where only the Faunus could see and, gently as he could manage, added, "Yang's here."

"Oh?" As expected, she sat up straighter and her ears shot up taut, flicking the way he pointed before she could even turn. It was adorable in a way and sad in another how much the Faunus fed on Yang's aura, pun not intended, waving and calling a gentle, "Hey, Yang."

"Sup, Kitty Cat." She jerked her head in greeting and rolled a shoulder, stretching as she turned a bemused face on her sparring partner. "You ready for some bruises, or trying to get to pet the kitty over here?"

"Yang!"

"I'm not saying you'll _win_, obviously, but yes. I'm ready to collect a few bruises finally finishing our long awaited spar." He rose with the words and smiled, then bobbed his head towards the arena. "I didn't reserve a spot, though, so we should probably get in line. Who knows how long it will take, but-"

"Oi, assorted cucks and cunts!" Yang shouted down at the arena and, around its edge, the waiting fighters eager to get a bout in. The students, to a man and woman, turned at her recognizable voice, some with exasperation and more than a handful with anxiety at Yang's… _Reputation_ regarding those who ignored her. "Me and Shaggy over here are 'bout to get our spar from a couple weeks back up and running. Place your betsm and fuck off outta the ring, the show's in town."

Whether because they were scared of _Yang_ or because they wanted to see the fight, they did as she told them and he shrugged. A fight now or a fight later, it was all the same to him in the end.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"She's a first year, Ozpin." Ironwood argued, his face grim and scowling on the widescreen Ozpin had put him up on. "Miss Nikos is an admirable champion, and a brave woman by all accounts. But so young… I don't know."

"She's Mistralian, though, so playing up the whole 'honor and duty' angle will be useful." Beside the Atlesian, a frozen picture of Qrow took up the other half of the screen, the man out in the sticks at some tavern and not able to connect well enough for a live feed. "Not sayin' to change anything, mind you. Just say what you would've before and she'll agree."

"Every Huntress should feel the same bond to honor and duty, and the same need to protect." Ozpin pointed out, even as he very much knew how true the opposite was. Hunters were just as selfish and cowardly as any others, in a comparable scope to civilians. "And yes, she is very young, but approaching her means four solid, safe years with her here. To master the Power, safe from Salem's claws."

"Still…" The old general sighed, scratching at his neck where, Ozpin knew, his cybernetics combined with his flesh to make his whole. Something which, the man had said a lot of times, led to a lot of discomfort. "I don't like it. Children should be free to be children, not heaped with these kinds of jobs."

"Don't you bring up yours to be soldiers, Jim?" Qrow barbed sharply, the man's scowl only deepening at the not _technically_ incorrect statement. "Sucks but this is how this stuff has to go. Salem can steal Maiden Powers, or do something like it, and we have to nip that in the butt."

"And we do need an excuse to keep her safe and in an environment where we can train her." The man agreed, frowning all the while in his distaste filled way.

"And I need to know if Miss Nikos is the candidate we all believe to be the best first year." It was better to go ahead and specify he meant among the first years, now that they'd agreed that it was a useful idea. Now, for his choice. "I believe Miss Nikos will agree to aid us, given her dutiful nature. And her skills are-"

"Only locked around fighting in arenas, Oz." Qrow cut in to point out in the way he was wont to do. "Nothin' in the field. I'd prefer a Frontierswoman over one that, for the most part at least. Someone with Grimm experience."

"As would I." Ironwood agreed swiftly, in one of the rarer instances of how the duo's conversations tended to go. Usually, they ended with scowls, glares, shouts and long drinks from their flasks. "Ozpin, if you really think she's the best option, we need to test her mettle first. And thoroughly, at that."

"Her team, too." Qrow added, "They'll be with her for years at the Academy, and probably after, too. We need to vett them or they could turn her from us."

"You don't mean to tell them about the Maidens as well, surely." Such hadn't even crossed his mind, and the concept certainly did not appeal. And he didn't hesitate to make the reasons known there, "That would expose our secrets to far more than I had hoped. Far, far more. It would be far safer to keep the circle closed."

"And when they find out anyway?" Qrow asked, a question he had no real answer to. Which was not a rarity, though the man pushing on to make an argument was somewhat rarer. "Oz, you have to know that they'll talk eventually. Especially since they gotta notice the 'extra sessions' she's gonna need to train her new power. And the stuff outside their Semblance she can do."

"I don't _like_ it either, but…" Ironwood sighed, "Qrow is right. Make sure you can trust the team as well, or we'll lose her down the line to that."

"...Very well, your arguments are sound. And I cannot refute them." Ozpin sighed, set on Pyrrha as his choice and grimacing at the implications beyond. "I will send them out on ranging missions, then. With Miss Goodwitch. She can watch and prime Miss Nikos for the role, as best as is possible without out and saying it."

"And the experience will bond them, better than the sparring sessions and light camping trips with their class could." Ironwood said it for him, and he smiled pleasantly as though he'd not realized. He had, of course, but this made it more _their_ idea collectively than his alone. "If they seem proper, we can approach them collectively, and put the choice to them."

"Indeed." Ozpin smiled, leaning back in his chair and taking a sip of his cocoa idly. "I shall make the arrangements as needed, then."

All according to plan, more or less.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Who missed the cliff-hangers? I missed the cliffhangers.**_

_**Also, yes, I **_**will** _**be including a full on yang and Jaune fight next chapter as the starter. And it will be different from the last to make points ahead of, uh, *checks notes* It says here 'ahead of all the V2/3 stuff and craziness, since things will be different to canon.'**_

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Red Demon Eye :**_

***reads first half of review and starts sweating profusely***

**Congrats, you're right! I won't answer that directly. But Jaune has a theory. A Force Theory! Haha, yeah, no, I know where the door is. Thanks.**

_**Epic Weaver : **_

**Good advice!**

_**Old Steamer :**_

**I mean, my name is legitimately 'Twisted Fate', so… **


	16. An Unfortunate Announcement

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Official Supporters:**_

_**Grand Priestess, **_**Luna Haile. **

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_**Ze Nope Rope, **_**Kaiser Snek, Snekiest Snek**

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_**Beta : **_

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Last chance to bow out, Jaune." Yang prodded teasingly, standing across from him with an uncharacteristically flat look on her face.

Her words teased but her face was flat and her eyes hard. What parts were visible to the crowd were jovial and happy as always. As _expected_ of her. But down on the arena floor, what only he could see was tense. Hard. _Afraid_ even. But he had no illusions that she was afraid of him, of course.

She was afraid _for_ him, and he could feel it ripple through the Force.

"I'm a lot stronger than I used to be, Yang." He challenged, spinning his glaive in lazy circles in front of him with the Force while his arms hung at his sides. Fast as lightning, his hand lashed out and caught the weapon, twirling it in his hand and bringing the base against the ground confidently. "But hey, Yang, don't worry." He raised his eyebrows and smiled, "If you're scared of me, you can always concede."

"Oh. Are you talking shit right now?" The woman's lips quirked and he saw and felt the mirth bubble up in her as she leaned back and laughed, "Like, are you _actually_ talking shit to me right now?"

"Yep."

"Really?" Her eyebrows spiked and she bobbed her head low, looking into his eyes from across the several feet. "Like, _really_ really. You are really really talking mad shit to me, best first year in the ring, right now?"

"Really really, yeah, Yang." He smiled, glad to feel her anxiety ebb slightly. For weeks now every time she'd looked at him, there'd been that fear, anxiety and pity.

Now, though, there was almost only mirth and amusement.

"So, I think we've chatted enough. Everyone's chuckling, but they'll get bored eventually." Sliding his right leg back he brought the glaive with it so the curve of the sharp edge lined up with his calf, off hand held up defensively and a smile on his face. "So you want to stay pretty, arrogant and, most importantly, _over there_, or come over here for your lesson in humility?"

"Okay, you asked for it." Yang chuckled, sliding into an easy boxing stance and rolling her neck until it popped. "Weiss-cream! Call it out, would ya!"

"If you two are done with the banter, I will!" The Schnee referee responded, still agitated from the nickname and standing by the little control panel with her arms crossed and her lips pursed. Tapping her foot impatiently, she added, "But hey, if you two want to toss childish insults and barbs back and forth, I'm sure everyone here quite enjoys that."

A chorus of boos, shouts of no, and urgings to hurry up met her words and the Schnee rolled her eyes.

"I was meant to be making your point, idiots…" With a tired sigh and a look to the sky as though beseeching some divine providence to step in on her behalf, she gave in and pressed a command on the console. A gentle thrum reverberated around them as a signal that the barriers were powering up and Weiss spoke, mostly following the rules. "I need you both to consent to fighting each other, and acknowledge I am not an officially licensed intermediary in these sorts of things. Therefore, any injuries suffered are your own responsibility, and neither I nor Beacon Academy may be held responsible for them."

"Got it!" Yang quipped lightly, curling and uncurling her fingers readily. "I won't rough him up too much, don't worry."

"I understand and consent to the rules." It was all a formality, really, and a bit of an annoying one considering everyone here would be well aware of the facts. Ah, but insurance wasn't _sensible_ more often than not, so he couldn't say much. Grinning he added playfully, "Though you may want to prepare a stretcher! Yang might need a lift out of the ring once I'm done pounding her into its floor."

"Oh wow are you cocky." Yang clicked her tongue, "This is gonna be fun."

"For the love of- Just fight already!" Weiss finally shouted, indignant and frustrated at their constant quipping. A dainty finger pressed a button and, over their heads, the Aura reader buzzed a start signal.

All the signal the two fighters could possibly have needed.

The unmistakable crack and roar of Yang's gauntlet catapulted her across the arena towards him, the hand that had fired whipping around in a devastating blow aimed for his head. Used to similar attacks from his partner, he dodged to the side at the last moment, the fist coming so close that he felt the wind off it. He could even swear he could smell her _shampoo_ when her head came down and her fist punched into the concrete. It cracked under the force of the blow but he was already moving, hand snapping up and the Force on his fingers.

Under his will she was hurled away, landing on her back and rolling around to stand upright, one hand cocked back to snap off a round at him. One hand snapped up and he called on the Force, directing the first round and then the second to either side of him, where the expensive rounds impacted in muted _whumpfs_ of Dust impacting reinforced concrete. Ducking left and down, he dodged a third round that seared by overhead and grimaced, knowing by now that he needed three seconds to be safely able get his Aura up after using the Force.

He'd managed _once_ to get it down to two seconds, but that was out of hours worth of attempts, and he wasn't going to risk it here.

Instead of risking another shot when he saw her right arm come back and cock another round, he flicked his free hand out, palm open and ready to launch an attack. Seeing the gesture and smart enough to know what it meant, the woman crossed her arms in front of herself and braced for his attack. But instead of some devastating blow, he only leapt with a smile, using the Force to propel himself and recovering his Aura mid-flight in case of attack. The maneuver was lightning fast and one he'd practiced and which didn't disappoint, catching the woman off guard and landing in front of her and sinking low. As hard as he could, he slammed his shoulder into her chest, glaive held between them so the blade could block her fists and other hand calling on his power.

Taking a note from Pyrrha's books, he yanked at the backs of her knees instead of attacking outright and she squeaked, thrown onto her back from the sudden, surprising force of the pull sweeping her legs from under her and his shoulder in her sternum. She landed spread eagle and visibly shocked and he rolled off her.

First landing on a palm and then pushing off with the Force to leap into the air and right himself, he moved above her head and turned midair, coming down as carefully as he could manage and miming Pyrrha's lessons. Landing and standing over her with his feet planted to either side of her head he gave her a smile. She snarled in response and tried to rise but a hand snapped out above her and the Force pinned her, invisible bindings trussing her wrists and ankles to the ground. She writhed, knees and shoulders bucking, and to her credit he had to focus to keep her down.

Eventually, though, she grunted and fell limp, and he pressed the curved edge of his glauve to the side of her neck.

"I win by pinning. You can't break my Semblance, and even if you could, you wouldn't do it before" He grunted, taking a deep breath to recover his stamina and then smiling down at the woman. She didn't say anything, only pursed her lips, and he added, "Concede the fight. Chipping your Aura away for an hour would be annoying, and I don't want to choke you out with my Semblance either."

Left unsaid was that he _would_ if he had to, and the woman sighed and nodded at that.

"I give! Tall, dark and blonde has me pinned and I can't get past his Semblance." She finally called, to a chorus of excited cheers, angry booing, and everything in between. "Real life, he could smash away until my Aura cracked."

Releasing her, he turned and gave Weiss a nod, chuckling to himself at just how many hands were forking over Lien to their friends at his winning. Apparently, everyone had bet against him.

"Then I announce the match in favor Jaune Arc, by pinning and technical defeat. Good work, to both of you." Weiss called stiffly, pressing a button that had the overhead barrier generator thrum and buzz again. A signal that the barrier was down and no one should fight any more. "Whoever wants to head into the next match can-"

"All first, second and third year students to the auditorium immediately, please. This is a compulsory attendance event, and no reasons to miss will be tolerated." The Headmistress' voice was clear and loud, echoing around them from the speaker system spread around the room. "All classes are to be cancelled for the interim of an emergency Academy meeting. Lunch period servings will restart once the meeting has concluded. To those exercising or sparring, come in what you are wearing. Time is of the essence."

"That's worrying." He only grunted at Yang's snide grunt, and offered a hand to help her up when she rolled onto her knees. She took it and let him tug her upright, smirking and bumping her elbow into his lightly armored side as they began to make their way off the floor, "Thanks for the hand. Looks like P-Money taught you some dirty tricks, though, and that wasn't fun."

"I wouldn't say she taught me dirty tricks…"

"Sure you wouldn't." The woman rolled her eyes, grinning roguishly as they left the arena and he spotted Ruby and Pyrrha coming their way while the others filed out of the room. He caught Nora looking their way and fighting the crowd headed for the doors that she'd been swamped in, but waved her off while Yang snarked. "P-Money might get upset if her boy-toy were talkin' about her like that, after all."

"Boy toy?" He asked, turning to meet her teasing gaze with a raised brow. "I may be a boy but I wasn't aware of the toy part."

"Gods you must be dense…" Whatever she meant, though, she didn't say and instead turned to catch a flying Ruby Rose. "Oof. Hey, lil' sis."

"Yang, how could you!" The younger girl slammed into her sister at full speed, legs and arms wrapped around her, and turned a scowl on a surprised Jaune. He blinked a very obvious question at her scowl and, almost shyly, she complained, "I lost all my cookie money, cheater…"

"Ruby Rose! What have you been told about betting Weiss' money? She gave you that allowance to get your sweets, not gamble." Yang chastised, fighting to get the girl off her like a woman prying off a growth. "Let go, you leach!"

"Nope!" She laughed, wriggling to keep a grip on her older sister and climbing on her like a monkey might a tree. "I am safest here!"

"Not when I get ahold of you after you tried to wrestle around on me you aren't! You remember your eleventh birthday same as I do, young lady." When the young Rose finally lost her grip, the blonde brawler held her by the hood like a cat caught where it ought not be while Jaune and his partner chuckled. "And don't give me that 'it was a sure thing' line, either. You never know when someone will whip out a dirty trick."

"Oi!" He challenged, "It wasn't a dirty trick."

"I disagree, tall, dark and scraggly. It made me lose, so that means it was a dirty, _dirty_ trick. Like, as dirty as Blakey's reading habits." She gave him a grin along with her joking tone, just to be sure he would know she wasn't entirely serious about it. Ruby, seeing her distracted sister, tried to wiggled her hood free and Yang scowled, rounding on her again. "Nuh uh, don't think I forgot about you, young lady."

"B-But Yaaaaaang!"

"No butts but the one I have a strong temptation to tan right now. When we get back to our room, you are in _so_ much trouble young lady." She threatened, dropping her younger sister and giving the partner pair a look. "What do you think the sudden call to the auditorium is about? I don't remember hearing about any assemblies."

"There weren't any, my best friend forever would have made sure to remind me." Ruby pouted as she stood and straightened her cloak behind her, giving Yang a petulant look. "And I'm the team leader! I say no spanking the team leader, and that's that."

"Mhm, we'll see about that back in the dorm when _you_ tell your 'best friend forever' that you lost your sweets money on betting in fights." Yang challenged, smirking victoriously when Ruby collapsed in on herself, pouting and fuming anxiety with her arms crossed. "What do you think is going on, then? If the assembly wasn't announced…"

"I would wager we will find out shortly." Pyrrha commented, turning and waving a hand towards the door that even now students were meandering through. "Shall we? Attendance is compulsory, after all."

"Yeah, I guess. Not much point skipping an assembly after all…" Yang sighed, gripping her hands behind her head and, after realizing they were still expanded, flicking Ember Celica closed so she could relax. Jaune's glaive clanked home as well and they began to climb the stairs to leave while she talked. "And 'sides, Miss Goodbitch sounded really, _really_ like she'd get mad at anyone not there."

"Yaaang," Ruby whined, playing up her childishness to amuse and distract from her being in trouble, "you can't call her that."

"Hey, what she can't hear can't hurt me." The blonde shrugged as he followed behind her, rolling his eyes all the while. In front of Pyrrha, Ruby whined again and Yang laughed, "Relax! I get enough detentions people will start askin' if the Big Bad Witch has a thing for me."

"I don't think people think that way about the Headmistress." Pyrrha countered, chuckling under her breath and giving Jaune a look. A _meaningful_ look at that, eyes hard and face set in a mask of a smile. She gave a small nod, then, and added soberly, "And she sounded afraid of something. I wonder what kind of ordeal would possibly make a nervous woman out of _the_ Headmistress of Beacon Academy."

What she didn't say was that whatever it was that could make the Headmistress even carry the hint of urgency her voice had was something they should fear. Especially given what they were fearing down the line. After all, any threat that could push Beacon Academy itself into even just emergency assemblies was already something to be feared with Pyrrha's death sentence hanging over her.

"Whatever is coming," he started simply, giving her a return nod, "we can deal with it together. Teams and friends, we can do just about anything."

"Drinkin' that good old Beacon Kool-Aid, eh?" Yang challenged playfully, tone nonetheless tensed from his own tension. "And why do you sound so serious all of a sudden? Nothin' going on around that I've heard of. Rubes?"

"Yeah, there's nothing big going on in Vale. I-I mean, I read that Mistral had a few bad cases recently with teams not coming back from jobs, but… We're fine." Ruby gave him a look, sharper eyes than belonged on a child even in _their_ profession seeming to analyze him. "But you sounded worried. Is, uh, is something up?"

"No." He answered quickly, already not liking the taste of the lie. "Nothing is wrong, per se. Just… Worried, like you guys, about the sudden announcements and stuff."

The two young women seemed convinced by his words, but Pyrrha of course wasn't. And she was just as against blatantly lying as he was, even if they both knew they couldn't _not_ lie about this. So even if she didn't _say_ anything, he knew she was upset for having to lie regardless, and felt it swamp him every step of the way to the auditorium.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"I understand disliking it, but each of those students consented to fighting the Grimm when they decided to attend this Academy." He chided the woman gently, standing behind the curtains of the auditorium stage and watching her closely. Cold feet weren't abnormal, he knew that much for fact, and he knew equally well that they could strike at random. "They knew what they would face, and that is all we will be asking of them. To face Grimm where it is safe enough for a team of Academy level Hunters to face. In order to free up more veteran class teams and, ultimately, proper Hunters as well to face larger threats this is a measure that is needed and that they will understand."

"But it's a measure asserted under false pretenses." She argued, turning to look at him from where she stood at the edge of the curtain, just where they couldn't be seen by anyone but the drones preparing the stage. "There _is_ no great Grimm incursion or threat that has our Hunters under duress. We're just saying there is to test our teams for more important duties, in a way that won't be noticed."

"I would wager our enemies will _notice_ our efforts." He pointed out, smiling in a thin veneer of attempted humor. "Sending almost a thousand extra fighters out into the fields? Admittedly off and on, but still. They will notice."

"Yes, they just won't know why we are _lying_ about the reason so many children are being sent to war." She gave him a look that said she wasn't in the mood for games and he sighed and shrugged, taking a sip of his drink to buy a moment of time. "They're children… I just want to let them be children for a while longer. At least the first years."

"A team among the first years will host Fall, Glynda." He pointed out firmly, meeting her eyes and blinking owlishly at the words. He couldn't allow himself to blink or seem to react to the argument, such as it was, since any such reaction could prompt her. "If we only send out one team of first years, they would be noted and then _slaughtered_. Is that better to risk, in your eyes, than normal risks to trained fighters?"

"No! Of course not, Ozpin, I just-"

"Then this is the best way to deal with things, Glynda." He'd learned well how to deal with his underlings in the centuries since his odd incarceration on this planet, at the behest of the Lord of Light. "It's been decided already, regardless, so cold feet will help no one. Our only options are this, or revealing our hand or revealing our cards and risking far worse."

"I suppose…"

"Trust me, Glynda." He offered, closing the distance with her and laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. He spoke softly and smiled, trying to reassure the comparatively young woman as best had was able."I have been dealing with these concerns, fears and situations for eons. This is a gamble, yes, but our best one possible."

"If you are certain…"

"I am, Glynda." He assured her, offering a last, comforting squeeze of her shoulder and a small nod before stepping back. With a warm smile, he gestured to the stage and prodded her gently, "Now, you have an announcement to make. And do pitch it well. I don't want everyone to get upset, or start to be afraid."

"Of course." She nodded, turning and heading out onto the stage, the dull roar of murmuring students dying as she did. Clearing her throat while he watched on with a small smile, the woman started to speak, "Students of Beacon Academy-"

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"-as you all are aware, in recent days, Mistralian Hunter guilds have suffered significant losses to the forces of the Grimm." He grimaced at the news, and sensed disquiet around him, but neither he nor the crowd seemed _surprised_ by the news. It had been well enough covered by the Valean News Network after all. "What was not covered, however, was that the rather well known Atlesian Specialist Corps suffered a similar bout of casualties. Vacuo has thus far been spared, but even here in Vale we are suffering… Duress."

That revelation had a wave of murmurs and invisible fear washing over the crowd, and he turned to Pyrrha to see her own fearful reaction. Something like this was _precisely_ what they'd both feared, an uptick in fighting that could put them in harm's way.

"Jaune…" He heard her anxiety and grimaced, unsure of what to do about it. Seeing other partner pairs doing it, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against him slightly. She stiffened for a moment, and a different emotion washed through her, but then she seemed to relax somewhat and murmured, "Thank you, Jaune…"

"Mhm." Was all he said, listening as the older woman began to speak again.

"Now, rest assured that there is no chance greater than normal of the Kingdoms being in danger." That at least managed to quell the anxiety a bit, along with the excited murmuring. "However, with our Hunters otherwise engaged essentially across the Kingdoms, they are… Stretched thin. As such, the Councils of Vale, Atlas and Mistral have officially lodged requests for the four Academies to send their students on lower risk missions in order to free up more capable Hunters for more dangerous assignments without exhausting them."

"These missions are of the simpler sort. Escorting a transport ship, killing small packs of lesser Grimm hazarding villages, those sorts of things. Things you are _all_ more than capable of dealing with." Having been in fights like those would probably be, he knew that not all of the students around him _were_ capable of that. Hopefully, they'd be sorted accordingly. "Starting tomorrow, mission assignments will be handed out to teams and your performances graded accordingly. We at Beacon Academy trust you to excel in your duties as Huntsmen and Huntresses and hope you trust us to send you on missions you are ready for."

"Get rest tonight, make peace with your duties coming more abruptly than you likely intended, and be ready for assignments to be delivered to your leader's Scrolls come morning." She finished, offering a curt nod and then smiling, adding in a more bright tone likely meant to balm their worries. "On the brighter side, classes and detentions will be waived outside of reading assignments and in-dorm tests. Once matters are resolved, of course, classes will resume, so do not shirk your studies more than is needed for your work."

"I wish you all a fond good night, and good luck." She finally said, stepping away from the podium and calling a simple, "Dismissed."

"Oohhhh, we get to go on _real missions_!" He heard Ruby cheer, a sentiment he heard and felt matched by others around him heartily. His team, though, were quiet as they rose and left.

"So, what does everyone think?" He asked once everyone had settled in back in the safety of their dorm, sitting on his bed with his arms crossed. When no one answered, he turned to Pyrrha standing on his right like some kind of bodyguard, turned slightly to look out the window. "Pyr?"

"It seems like we'll be in the field, but I believe that we as a team can stand against whatever comes." The woman answered simply, turning back to them and offering a thin smile. It was meant to reassure them, he was sure, but he could feel the forced nature behind it. "We will be fine, I am sure. Though I would confess to being nervous if pressed."

"I mean, yeah, we're all nervous." Nora offered from across the room from him, where she had her head on a pillow on Ren's lap while he played with her hair, the girl anxious and complaining of 'tummy flipping'. "Like, I know we'll be fine, but…"

"Your nerves are still acting up." The blonde nodded, knowing well enough how that could go. Quietly and hoping to offer some kind of consolation, he offered, "My teacher always said 'a fighter that goes into battle with a still stomach does so for his stomach being full of his own arrogance'."

"A good saying, your master seems to have had great wisdom." Ren offered, running his fingers through Nora's hair to relax her. He chose not to argue the amount of wisdom his automaton instructor had held claim to. "We'll know our assignments come the morning, though. So worrying now and losing sleep seems a poor idea. We should get some rest, while we have the time and convenience. Staying up stressing ourselves will only fulfill our nightmarish fears."

"Ren's right." He sighed, forced to agree through the logic even as he disliked the idea of actually _doing_ it. Standing, he began the process of tugging his armor off and ordered gently, "Get some rest, guys. We have a big day tomorrow."

The first of many, he was certain.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Hkblarg et Caetera :**_

**One, your name was far more difficult to spell properly than it should have been. **

**Two, yes, his abilities and inclinations will evolve. With abilities on both Light and Dark sides of the fence. I won't detail how, but I will say that at least as of now, I don't plan any empire building.**

_**Illuviar :**_

**You are of course correct, but Jaune's education wasn't nearly as detailed on such minutiae. As such, his assumptions will not always be correct. Same for recitations and so on, Jaune will fuck them up.**

_**Knightwolf :**_

**Hey, not gonna lie, I would totally love to find some excuse for a Venator to roll up in the story. Probably won't happen, but I have a huge fan-boner for that ship. I do unironically like the idea of maybe grabbing HK, though I initially avoided that since he is a common go to for SW fics. **


	17. Good Morning 'Archeologists'

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Official Supporters:**_

_**Grand Priestess, **_**Luna Haile. **

_**High Priests, **_**Alvelvnor, Gage. **

_**Priests, **_**The Impossible Muffin**_**, **_**Xager the Chaos King.**

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_**Ze Nope Rope**__**,**_ **Kaiser Snek, Snekiest Snek**

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_**If you want to be on the Supporter list, PM one of us for details or join our private server for details. Hope you enjoy reading my stories, please leave me a comment to let me know if you did, or where I can improve. Link here, where able to be seen : **__** /2UZncAm**_

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_**I have a kofi account now, too, under this name for those interested.**_

_**Betas : Flaccid Snek, Pocket Ren**_

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Morning sleepy bone boys!" Nora cheered excitedly when they all began climbing out of bed drowsily, reaching for their uniforms while Nora - already dressed in hers - shoved thermoses of warm liquid into their hands. Coffee, he found after a surprised sip, but he didn't get a chance to worry over _Nora_ having coffee before he was shoved towards the door and she ordered, "Five-minute shower, caffeine, get dressed, go."

"Nora, what's going-"

"Nope, Fearless Leader!" Nora cut him off, hands on his shoulders pushing him towards the bathroom, rattling off quickly, "We have a big day, you guys were tense, and some coffee, a nice shower, and a good breakfast will get you all running right." At the door, she spun him around and grinned, tapping a finger against his nose, "Boop!"

"Why did you-"

"Sign of affection." Ren and Nora _both_ explained, the former tired but bemused and the latter bouncing on her heels excitedly. Too tired, and uninterested to care about what that looked like and how his hormones _should_ react to it, he turned to Ren and the man explained in a dry voice that mirrored his own apathy to it, "I don't know why or when, but she started tapping people's noses and going 'boop' when she likes them. It's… Just a thing she does."

"It's cute!" Nora asserted, spinning on her heel and planting her feet with her arms at her sides like a cartoon character. Then she cocked her head to the side and bounced on one heel cutely and added, "Plus. it's my catchphrase! I'm cute, it's cute, everyone knows this, come on!"

"All true, Nora. And yes, you are very cute." Ren nodded, agreeing to her claims as easily as breathing and giving Jaune a look while Nora blushed and seemed to shut down. Ren's eyes met his over her hunched, giggling and stammering form, and he smiled. "That should keep her contained for a moment. I suggest enjoying your shower before your nose gets another visit."

His chuckle as he closed the door turned into a loud laugh when Nora finally recovered and whined, long and loud, "Reeeeen! You can't just… Just _say_ things like that, it isn't fair to do that!"

Stepping out of the warmth of the shower, he gave himself a look in the mirror and pursed his lips, scratching at the stray and loose spurts of his beard around his braid and along the side of his face unimpressedly. The reason was simple and obvious, as distracted as he'd justifiably been lately with Pyrrha, but the look wasn't a good one. Instead of the 'Sith Warrior' vibe he'd left the temple with now he looked more 'homeless' than anything, with spurts of uneven, ungroomed hair everywhere along his chin and jaw.

Even his braid was sloppier than normal, with stray hairs longer than strictly acceptable stuck in every direction possible.

His razor and a pair of trimming scissors saw an end to that and, by the time the steam from his shower had faded, the sides of his jaw were clean and his goatee trimmed back to, well, a _goatee_. His hair was past his shoulder and wild, but he let that be, satisfied that it fit into a more rugged look than the homeless he'd had before.

"Better." Pyrrha remarked when she saw him emerge, dressed in his uniform and looking far fresher then when he'd gone in. He offered a small smiled and then she was gone, calling out, "I won't be long."

By the time she traded spots with Ren, Nora had returned with several trays of pancakes, as well as sausage and biscuits, some eggs, and some bacon. Together with Pyrrha, he sat down on the floor between all their beds with the trays in front of them and Nora handed out small plastic plates for them to eat. Nora launched into a story about a dream she'd had last night, where she ruled as queen of the Grimm and had a dozen knighted Beowolves and an Ursa mount, and he let her intended effect take hold and relaxed. It was manipulation and underhanded on her part, to be sure, but he found that he didn't mind it even as he noticed it.

She was just trying to make everyone happy, after all, after the night of tension. And he just couldn't find it in himself to begrudge her that, or dislike it for the means she used to pull it off.

"This was a great idea, Nora." He complimented, smiling thinly and pulling a biscuit apart as Ren finally joined them. With a murmur of thanks, he took the plate Nora offered and Jaune added, "Unless it was your idea, Ren?"

"No, all hers." The man chuckled, taking a sip of his still-warm coffee, no doubt glad of the thermos and Nora's foresight, before he went on. "About three hours before morning I woke up with her sitting on on waist and staring at my face. Like some kind of ginger gargoyle, and me her castle."

"I am too cute to be a gargoyle, and I was waiting for you to wake up!" She pouted, after a second of thought, she grinned and nodded. Seeing her grin, Ren sighed knowingly and started to eat while she leaned over to steal a piece of his bacon and giggled, "I _am_ Queen of the Castle, though~! At least you got that part right~!"

"The queen of his castle, perhaps." Pyrrha prodded, grinning when Nora flushed, fell back on her rear and started flailing her hands in front of her like she was warding off bees. Amid her stammer of protests, Pyrrha burst out laughing and nearly fell over, grabbing onto his forearm to steady her instead. "Gods, Nora, you are so easily teased. And energetic as well, this morning!"

"I maaaaybe snuck in some coffee. Just a lil' bit, since I was off on my own." She giggled when Ren scowled at her and held up a hand, pinky and forefinger just barely apart in a show of how much she'd had. Then she started miming squishing his head, murmuring a 'Boop' each time and giggling more as he glowered. "Not my fault, Renny~!"

"It most definitely is your fault, though." He stated simply, pausing long enough to take a bite of his biscuit, chew, and look to her. Gently and slowly, he reached a hand out and thumped her nose. "Bad Nora, getting into the coffee. You know you aren't allowed in there. Now you're going to be hyper all day."

Nora blinked and then, very suddenly, flopped back onto the floor between Ren's back and his bed. He took another bite and, loudly, she whined, "Jaaaaaaune!"

"Uh, yes, Nora?"

"Ren killed me!"

"But…" He blinked, sat his half-eaten biscuit down and sighed, before he finally asked, "One, how did he kill you? And two, how are you _telling_ me about it if he killed you?"

"I'm a ghost Nora! Back from the dead to haunt the living!" She said simply, springing up off the ground in a way that had him question gravity, somehow spinning and turning in the air, and then landing on her knees behind Ren with more agility than the sum total of a house full of cats. He didn't blink as her arms closed around his chest and her hand came around, gently tapping Ren's nose, "_Boo_p."

"And now you're not allowed to hang around _Yang_." The Mistralian young man said with a heavy sigh but a small smile, holding a piece of bacon up on a fork. She snapped it up and, growing more sober, Ren sighed, "This is nice. I hope we get to do this again soon, in spite of the mission assignments."

That somewhat brought the mood down, though no one seemed upset. Instead, forks and plates were set down and eyes turned to Jaune, whose Scroll had been muted through the night. Quietly, he drew it out of his pocket and clicked it open and, sure enough, there was a message with the Beacon profile picture. As well as around fourteen from Ruby, and ten from his mother, but both of those were normal and - while preferable - largely unimportant at the moment.

"We're to leave at two o'clock to head into the city, where we will meet Atlesian archeologists and receive details for our escort mission." He relayed quietly, giving his team a look to see if they had any reaction to the statement. "It will be a week long mission, to scout ruins far off the main, patrolled routes throughout Kingdom territory. Further, Grimm presence in the region is moderate. A military patrol is in the area, but you are to expect delays and pack for two weeks, and expect to fight class two and below Grimm."

"Class two." Pyrrha noted quietly, echoing anxiety until she took a breath and nodded, forcing herself to relax. Something she was becoming tragically adept at doing, to his mind at least in spite of her self-mutilating heroism. "Well, we fought worse than that in Initiation. Boarbatusks were the only of those we failed to encounter. We'll be fine."

"Hm." He nodded, pinching off a piece of his biscuit and taking a bite idly. Sensing a pang of anxiety from his team he added, somewhat mutedly, "I'm sure we'll be fine, as long as we're careful."

"Jaune." Pyrrha's voice was edged and, when he turned, her eyes were just as sharp. Hard, green and icy shards that met his in a way he was _sure_ told Nora and Ren something was up. They'd need to be blind to miss it when it was so blatant, but she seemed uncaring as she went on, "We'll be fine. We just need to keep our heads and act in a way that brings honor to our names and fellows."

"Y-Yeah." He nodded, for a brief moment more afraid _of_ Pyrrha than for her. Coughing to clear his throat and collect himself, he turned to the other, wide-eyed partner pair and added with a small smile, "We'll be fine, as long as we fight well and hard. I mean, we have me, the prodigal son, Pyrrha the champion of Mistral, and Nora, rider of Ursa. Who could face us?"

"Who." Ren parroted carefully, Nora's bright eyes on her blonde leader like a predator locked on prey. "Don't you mean _what_?"

"I… I, Ren..." Damn, but Ren was sharp. Normally the wordage wouldn't have mattered, but with Pyrrha and he's back and forth, he was suspicious. Jaune could _feel_ it radiating off him in waves that turned the sea to a frothing mess. "I mean, it's outside patrol routes. Bandits will be out there, probably. But I meant Grimm, it's just a phrase."

And _that_ sounded weak, but Ren grunted and nodded regardless, either pretending to be convinced or _actually_ convinced. And with no way to know which, Jaune was forced to just move on, and hope all was well _enough_ for now.

"Well, we should get our things together, then." He did his best to make it _sound_ like an order and stood, giving Ren and Nora both a look and asking, gently, "Could you two run the dishes out, please? We'll get all our packs and head to the lockers, meet you there."

"Sure." Ren nodded, giving Nora's hand a tug and then starting to gather the dishes together. With their packs on their backs and plates in their hands, Ren gave them a nod, and a smile, and bade a simple, "Farewell. See you shortly, at the lockers. And don't take too long."

What _that_ meant took approximately one minute to find out, when Pyrrha rounded on him with her own pack on her back.

"You're letting this situation affect your judgement again, Jaune." She chided, gentle even with the sharpness in her eyes. When he didn't respond, she pressed his own pack into his chest and gave a small shake of her head. "Don't let what is happening between us, or too us, have effects beyond us, Jaune."

"It's not that easy, Pyrrha. You know that" He argued, quiet and ever wary of people hearing, senses reaching around them to feel… Anyone at all.

Students around him, tense and anxious for their own reasons, sprang out but nothing else aside from that and the pervading sadness that hung over the Academy uniformly. Why that was, he wasn't sure, but the easiest and thus most likely explanation was teenage angst. Which some would call what they were having, looking in from the outside, not knowing the certainty behind everything and the dread.

"It…" He failed, looking for more words while she waited. When he found none, he gave up, pulling his backpack on and placidly finishing, "It just isn't easy, Pyrrha. One of us- _You_, Pyrrha, could die."

"No." She shook her head, and turned to leave, speaking over her shoulder as she went. "It isn't easy at all. But we must do it, as out duty, our honor and our obligation as Hunters of Grimm. I am happy to have this conversation as many times as there are those Grimm, Jaune, if it will see you on the right course."

"Mad woman…" He murmured, moving to follow her without another word when she didn't respond.

Regardless, he had a job to do, even if Pyrrha made it harder to do that job. He was used to stubborn women though, his family was stuffed full of them.

The 'archeologists', as it turned out, weren't normal archaeologists waiting nervously with some soldiers like he'd at first imagine. Instead, a pair of white-uniformed and lightly armored Atlesian. They were waiting for the four of them at the open ramp of the back of an Atlesian shuttle, stocked with axes, shovels, picks, and dull grey crates stacked to one side of the compartment. In the other, a trio of dull silver robots stood with their heads bowed and rifles held across their chests, inactive at the end of a quintet of chairs set against one side of the compartment for them. One, stockier and with a sparse dusting of white hair on his chin, had red-lined armor.

_Officer's_ armor, Jaune knew from his studies under his father.

"Team Juniper?" The red-armored soldier asked as they approached, returning the nod Jaune gave him. "Lieutenant Black, Atlesian Special Research Division. Have you been briefed?"

"Technically, yes. Beacon sent us a message, told us to come and meet you." And the fact that the message they'd gotten hadn't mentioned the SRD had his hackles raised. Either because he was anxious lately over what was going on or natural suspicion, he couldn't be sure. Suspicion came so easily to Sith, like breathing, so he could never be sure. For those reasons he added a gentle, "They… They also said that you'd give us more details about the mission?"

"Old mountain ruins were spotted by a patrol that ranged too far out on accident, due to malfunctioning navigational equipment." Lieutenant Black reported stiffly, gesturing with a hand towards the equipment and the airship. "Our orders are to go there, look for historical artifacts, and withdraw with our findings. Do you four know of the SRD?"

"Nope!" Nora quipped, bright and happy as always, bouncing on her heels eagerly. "Don't know a thing, 'cept you're archeologists. And soldiers. Oh! Are you guys like Doctor Jones, from the movies? How many ancient Mistralian ruins have you blown up?!"

"Uh, well… No, but… We haven't blown up any Mistralian ruins, no." The man's stunned state only lasted a moment, which was better than most fared against a caffeinated Nora Valkyrie. "The Special Research Division have archeologists, historians and rangers alongside soldiers, air support and sappers, but we try to avoid damages to ruins wherever possible. Our goal is to search out and obtain knowledge from the past, to better understand the world. He who forgets the past-"

"Is doomed to repeat it." Jaune parroted the saying, if not from their motto but instead from Instructor's audio synthesizer.

"You know our motto?"

"My master taught me the same lesson, yes." He didn't answer that it was a Revanite's motto, though that they held it in such esteem was an interesting fact. Curious in spite of himself, he prodded, "His master taught it to him, but he never said where it came from."

"Our organization has existed for decades, after a group of Mantle scouts found an old, iced over and buried temple." Jaune tried to hide his reaction to that, eyes widening slightly before he schooled himself. The man spoke softly, and from him Jaune could sense a kind of guilt and underlying need to conceal."The structure was unsafe, and damaged in the fighting when grimm arrived, but the motto was written in an old language a hobby historian knew. They brought back relics as well, which contained unfortunately classified knowledge of a forgotten age."

Half-truths, then. It had to be, to feel like this.

"Interesting." He smiled, offering a hand for the man. He took it and they shook, the young Force wielder smiling in as friendly a way as possible for him. "I won't press you, but thanks for satisfying my curiosity, Lieutenant."

"Of course." The soldier nodded, turning to board the ship when they released each other and calling over his shoulder, "We need to go, however. We have work to be doing, and Atlas only paid for your sword arms, not your words."

Together, the team boarded the ship and stowed their full packs with the rest of the equipment, settling in for a trip. Not a long one, luckily, but he let meditative relaxation overtake him regardless to fight off the oncoming motion sickness.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"No, no, no! Bad animals, no." Roman sighed, sauntering through the warehouse full of crates and masked Faunus, watching two of the White Fang soldiers manhandling a crate of Dust. Standing between them, he gripped their shoulders and smiled, meeting furious gazes through their masks and smiling wider for it, "You can't handle these boxes like you do your mothers, come on now. You'll blow us all sky high!"

"We understand, Torchwick." The larger one said, ram horn on one side curling around the base of his skull. On his other side was nothing but a stump, clearly burnt off and enough to earn a distant pang of sympathy from the rogue. Snarling, the ram added, "Your woman was looking for you before."

"Neo?" No one was fool enough to call _Cinder_ anyone's woman, after all, so it was a formality to ask. That she felt the need to _look for him_ rather than wait until he found her spoke of a problem, even if he'd been out of the Kingdom for a while. When the man nodded and hefted the crate, he asked, "Which way did she go?"

"That way." The man grunted, gesturing off past several rows of high-stacked crates towards where Roman knew the offices for the warehouse were. "In a hurry, too." She's got some legs on her, for someone so small."

"You can say that again." The other Faunus murmured with a flick of his lion's tail. Roman's eyes narrowed and the man snorted, giving him a look through his mask. "They go all the way up too. Not bad for a Human, at least."

Roman knew baiting when he saw it and smiled, patting the lion heavily on the shoulder and chuckling, "Yeah, she does. And she _loves_ compliments and a good lay. Young Faunus like you, you're bound to meet her standards. So hey, go for it, might have some fun. And in this line of work, you never know when a day is your last, right?"

"True…" The Faunus nodded, "Ain't she your woman, though? Ain't the type to go house wrecking."

"Nah, don't worry about that. Grab the gazelle by the horns and dig in, you animal!" He laughed, clapping him on the shoulder, "But do it after work. And don't blow yourself up, that's no fun for me, you, or the cleaning crew."

He didn't wait for the lion to respond, turning and stalking off before he could, but he never stopped smiling. Stupid young bastard like him would go for it, and Neo would enjoy cutting him apart for daring to. Before or after having fun with him, he couldn't be sure. Little minx was random like that, but that was her business.

Halfway to where he'd been told Neo had run off looking for him, he felt a small hand grab his and looked down, meeting pink and white eyes, "Ah, Neo."

"_I missed you."_ She signed for him, releasing his hand with hers and wrapping her arm around him in a hug, face pressed against his side. He gave her head a pat, chuckled, and watch her other hand moving rapidly, "_You were gone so long. I got worried something happened."_

"Worried?" He snorted, and then sighed when she pulled away to scowl up at him. "About me? Neo, you know your old man always survives. People he's with, maybe not, but..." He shrugged and smiled, "I always come back, even from Atlas or hell itself."

"_You repeated yourself, Pops. Starting to lose it up there?"_ She smiled, releasing him and bouncing away happily.

Roman watched her and followed her for a bit while she wandered. Enjoying having him around, he knew from her earlier explanations. Finally, she turned and smiled thinly up at him, walking backwards towards the sleeping areas around the offices, the latter being where the duo did their planning with the bitch and the bull. A behavior he knew meant

"You were looking for me?" He asked, carrying Melodic Cudgel in one hand and walking where she lead. She nodded and he raised an eyebrow, "Normally you just wait somewhere to surprise me, or sneak around. The animals spotted you."

"_Oh?"_ She said in her way, one eyebrow raised and her head cocked to the side.

"Yeah." He smirked, "A lion boy complimented your legs, too."

"_I do have nice legs."_ She signed, grinning and giving him a look that demanded a compliment.

"Yeah, you're the most beautiful girl in the world. No one could want a more pretty adopted midget assassin." She laughed and fanned herself silently and he rolled his eyes at her antics, already refreshed just from their short time together. After a moment of her mimed blushing maiden routine, he coughed and asked, "So, what were you wanting to show me?"

"_So I stole someone's uniform and did the whole 'go to work' thing, you know pretending to be a normie."_ She rolled her eyes at the term and he mirrored her gesture, amused at her referring to the average bear as 'normie'. Just because she was crazy and they were thieves didn't mean she could _judge_ people.

Rob them, maybe, but judge? They had standards!

"_Well, I went to a little karaoke bar thingy, and found something."_ She smiled, fishing her Scroll out of her blouse and rolling her eyes at _his_ rolling his eyes. "_We're not actually related you know. It's okay to look."_

"I'm good, thanks." He assured her, smiling patronizingly and earning a theatrical, overblown sigh. He _really_ didn't need to encourage her teasing, so he left it there, asking, "What did you find that was so interesting?"

She didn't answer him, instead holding her Scroll out and grinning widely. He took it, punched in her weak security code and looking at the image frozen on the screen. Then he blinked, turned to get it in some shadow for a better look, and smiled, "Fuck me… Red's little gang has the Schnee in it?"

Leaning over, he flicked by the picture of them all sitting to another, and pointed at the Schnee's hands. Fixed firmly to the kitty's ears, while the Faunus flushed and smiled. Either the Schnee made the Faunus let her get some petting in, or the Faunus offered, but either way it was damn sure to rankle some hides. And that meant he had _leverage_ on a certain bull and through him, the bitch.

"Good job, sweetheart!" He praised, ruffling her hair and smiling widely, "Now I have an idea…"

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**You guys and your long reviews, needing long responses, sheesh. I mean, go to town, I love it. But yeah, looooooong Reviewer Responses below. Sorry for somewhat padding the word count. And to said Reviewers, if I come across as short, it's because I'm avoiding padding the word count too much. If anyone wants to DM me for more detailed chat, feel free. Or join my server to do the same. Advertising neither, merely offering for those so inclined.**_

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Dr Killinger :**_

**Take care, man. I know how you feel, I used to have to work at, uh *checks notes to avoid lawsuit* 'Penny Approximate', if you catch my drift. Ten hour shifts, clopen-ing often, near enough to no pay and incompetent staff around me. Glad my stories provide some manner of relief!**

_**Makuaraymi :**_

**My character dialogue and actions are based on the show, in all cases I default to it. Yang play-flirts with Blake from nearly the word go in the show, so respectfully, I disagree. Further, I specifically talked to a bisexual person I know and had them review their interactions and got a seal of approval. The difference they detailed is that the discomfort and anxiety comes from a place of anxiety over not being accepted, which we have little indication is a **_**thing**_ **in Remnant.**

**It also comes down to individuals in the whole 'sexual awakening' thing. I, personally, am asexual, and coming to that took about a year. Then it was over. I accepted it, no one but my stereotypical - and I mean SUPER stereotypical - Republican mother cared, and everyone moved on inside a day.**

**Basically, I see your concern, and can only say that in Remnant things are easier, if just a bit. There are giant monsters of living shadow, who puts their diddles where is… Less of a thing. XD**

**They are only tagged since some requested I tag them since they will be important to the plot. Also, yes, they may be - or seem, at least - unconnected to the Star Wars stuff. So is Cinder herself probably, but I assure you she will drive plot too. Their involvement will be demonstrated in full in time. Another good concern, and I really do get it and appreciate the offered critiques, but another 'Wait and see' kinda one. **

**You feel me all the way through all that?**

_**Argus : **_

**Poorly. XD**

_**Mahina Fable :**_

**Pyrrha is my favorite to write, and the hardest. Chapters have been delayed hours and more because I wanted to get her lines right. And I appreciate your support in the other things, too, though I get the pushbacks there.**

**Some people don't like the Bees, or think that they don't **_**fit**_ **being shipped properly or convey the right ideas, and that's fine. I disagree and will hash things out as seen above as to **_**why**_ **and** _**how**_ **I disagree, but again it's fine. And people are sensitive to racism being shown right now. **

**For those reading, I will point out here that Weiss was a racist in this story. However, she was also a good person, and once challenged changed her mind. This is the case for many people like this, raised with an un-challenged belief. I made a point of showcasing BOTH of the kinds in this story. One is just more neatly dealt with, owing to how easily dismissed it is. Fun fact! I was the second kind, see mention of my uber-Republican mother, until I was abouuuut twelve and met an African-American kid named Lemar.**

**I appreciate you seeing and looking for the nuance. **

_**Chris Adair :**_

**That… Is a good criticism, actually. Now I wish I'd done that.**

_**Knightwolf :**_

**That isn't a terrible idea, actually, though fuel and ammunition would be a thing. And if I allow space-travel, I don't know how that would go, so it would have to be on-planet preferably. Good ideas, but needs me working on it, is my point.**

_**Connor Worsnop :**_

**No, yeah, he's popular for a good reason.**

_**Zenith Tempest :**_

**Oh he will face down against different, graver threats than normal Huntsman. But not right now. Not yet. He needs to be stronger, and a lot of that is on the **_**Huntsman**_ **end of things. Instructor simply couldn't have helped him learn any of that, and spent the time focusing more on Force lessons than saber lessons, though he taught him that well enough too. Instructor neither had the space to teach him wild and crazy acrobatics, or the knowledge to teach him to use his Aura, so those are intrinsic weaknesses to his background.**

**Remember though, Jaune hasn't lost a fight yet because he was weaker. He won against the Grimm at Ansel handily, and only lost the first fight against Yang because **_**Glynda**_ **called the fight against his will due to injury. Now, he's learning to balance - see the theme? - his Aura skills and Force utilities more readily thanks to Pyrrha's help.**

**As for sensing Glynda's intentions he was in a full room of anxious, chattering teenagers and staff. With a lot of effort, and knowing who he was targeting, he could have. But he had no reason to suspect them - **_**yet**_ **\- and thus no motivation to put such effort into getting a basic read. And had he sensed guilt and anxiety, that could easily be chalked up to sending kids on dangerous missions, since Jaune doesn't know about the Maidens and so Ozpin is only a well-connected Headmaster in his eyes currently.**

**On the note of ships, someone suggested a fighter or something rather than a capital ship. Thoughts there? As it stands, I don't plan on doing space stuff, but I could easily hear reasons to do so.**


	18. The Temple : Part I

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

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_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

The landing site was small and square, with irregular but smooth stones laid unevenly across about fifty feet of space. Grass, weeds, and the occasional roots of trees had grown over the unknown amount of time since it had been abandoned, very nearly covering the smallest of the smooth, unevenly resting paving stones. They were, luckily enough, flat enough to park the shuttle comfortably on, but the odd breaks and uneven, cracked stone was still a stark reminder of the scale of time.

Around the open area were the walls of old buildings, barely distinguishable in shape for the trees that had grown through and over them. The trees were a temperate smattering of elms, oaks, and even a pine towering high into the sky on the other side of the parked shuttle. Most of the walls had long since fallen, laying flat and covered in grass and crawling vines or laid against trees, held up by the same wood that had, well, _uprooted_ them in the first place. But his attention was drawn to the pin, the base of it covered in vines that had, somehow he wasn't wholly sure of, collected stones and carried them up the tree's surface. A broken wall lay around it, the apparent source of the broken slabs of granite. Roots, like the vines, had wrapped around, under and over the broken hunks of old, weathered and discolored granite.

"Is something the matter, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, stepping up behind him where he knelt, looking at the strange but definitely natural display. He nodded his hooded head at the stones and heard her hum, sounding pleasant when she answered, "It is… Interesting, I suppose."

"It's not normal." He explained, gesturing at the stone that seemed to even be sprouting out from _under_ the tree. "It's like the seed grew on top of the granite itself, instead of in the soil under it."

"Does it… Does it, you know..." She hesitated and he sensed anxiety and doubt, for a moment, before he forced his attention away from sensing her. An act of odd willpower, closing himself to her to give her privacy. "Does it sense proper? Is it… Something unique, that you can discern?"

"No." He shook his head, standing and giving her a smile over his shoulder as she stepped around to stand at his side. "No, it's perfectly natural. I just… I find it beautiful."

"How do you mean?" She asked with a raised brow, and her head cocked slightly to the side with her question innocently. Her curiosity was easy to see and sense both, so much that he knew he'd not have needed the Force to tell it, and he smiled at that. It drew a smile that she pouted at, raising a hand to hide _it_ but not the crinkling of her nose, "Jaune, do not look at me like that. It was just a question."

"It's like us." He answered, turning to look back at it and then gesturing at its roots with a hand. "Fated with poor ground, where its seed should surely have died, like us. And like us, it struggled on against the very nature of things to survive. And in the end, and in spite of the very stone blocking it, it grew, entangling its destruction and making it into its foundation instead."

"Life, uh…" Pyrrha shrugged, unsure of what to say, "Finds a way, I suppose. Is that what you are saying?"

"What I am saying is that if this tree can survive vines snaring it, and stone blocking it, then we can survive fate blocking us." He turned and paused, laying a hand on her shield-side shoulder and smiling. Watching for ears or eyes listening to them across the meager campsite and finding none, he spoke quietly, "I hate your decision. More than almost anything else in my entire life."

"Jaune," She started, stiffening at his broaching the subject, "I'm sor-"

"No." He interrupted, giving her a smile and squeezing her shoulder gently. "You're not sorry about your decision, Pyrrha." She blinked and her eyes narrowed, but he went on before she could speak, "You're sorry for how it makes me feel, and I respect the distinction there. As much, in fact, as I respect your decisions."

"Then what is the point?" She asked, voice filled with as much confusion as her eyes. When she heard no answer she scowled slightly, turning bodily so his hand fell from her shoulder and she could square her shoulders, she asked, "Why have you unbandaged old, healing wounds if you had nothing to say?"

"Because I never apologised to you. For lashing out, and being stubborn, a-and… The works, I guess." He answered simply, turning to stand across from her in the same way she had him. "And I'm… Trying to make that right, while I have the time. Because I'm scared, of losing you and of losing my team."

"And I'm scared of dying." She nodded, not so much countering his words as agreeing and offering her own answer. Along with a hand, that she held out for him to take. "Shall we be afraid of our fates together, then?"

"Yeah." He smiled, taking the hand and pulling her in for a hug that she happily returned with a surprised, muted little 'oh'. After a moment, he released her and nodded, more at peace than he was before. "Let's win together then, Pyr. Right?"

"Of course." She nodded, giving him a look and then, for a reason he was unsure of, nodding again. "Let us win together indeed, partner mine. Whatever it takes, as your code would tell you to strive for. No?"

"My code would teach that we should struggle against anything in our way to get at what we desire. So yes." He smiled, then, and turned back to the tree with a small sigh of anxiety and contentment. As she walked away, he knelt and shook his head, reaching out to press a hand against the old stone and dust it off gingerly, "What was this place, I wonder? And why do I feel so… Swamped by its energies?"

His answers to that question were as easily found as his answers to what to do about his fated, unfortunate partner's apparent doom. That is to say, as clear as swamp water.

"We shall see, I guess." He finally decided, standing and turning to the small camp that had been erected at the back of the armored Atlesian craft.

Each partner pair, including the soldiers, had their own tent arrayed in a half circle in front of the lowered ramp. A fourth had been set up at the far end of the semi-circle with a wide table, tools and a couple chairs set in it, for work purposes and maintenance alike. In the storage compartment of the Atlesian dropship a small stove had been set up, Dust powered and rigged to the ship's power system, with a little table in front of the rigged passenger seats for eating. No fire had been built, each tent instead holding a little Dust cell powered heater, but even so it looked like the kinds of camps he'd seen in old war movies and documentaries.

And, yes, if Nora asked he would say that he'd seen them in Whitewater Jones movies too, back in Ansel.

A good thing she hadn't asked, that, since she'd go off on a _spree_ if she heard mention of them. Damn caffeine was the bane of all… Well, all of Nora's victims, he supposed.

"Hunters, group up, we need to talk for a minute and some." One of the Atlesians ordered, the four of them meandering over to the little pseudo-command tent that they'd set up. On it was a topographical map of the area, with their camp marked, which the soldier pointed to, "Here is us, in a small gathering point that was a ways outside the city."

"Why so far away?"

"Executions, trials, diplomatic meetings, the works." The red-armored officer answered with a small shrug, nodding back at the map for their attention and continuing. "We'll have to find a path up, the one the inhabitants built is long since gone. Overgrown, eroded and, quite simply, buried under newer dirt."

"So we're hiking then." Ren offered, shrugging when the man nodded in answer. "We're Huntsmen and Huntresses, Sir. We can handle a little hike."

"I know, son, I know. Just a briefing, rest assured, I wouldn't just insult you all by doubting you on a simple hike." The man assured them, shaking his armored head and then sighing, less for agitation than for boredom he sensed. Or unease before a mission, equally as likely, based on what the blonde could sense. "Terrain is easy enough, considering the mountain and everything else, with a nice and gentle slope and sparse tree and undergrowth rates. Should be an easy enough hike."

"And at the top?" Jaune himself asked, turning and looking up at the mountainside where he knew the ruins were _supposed_ to be. Just barely, he could make out an imprint of sorts. Lines of trees that had sort of unnatural shapes to them, like squares that had had their lines crossed over. "What do we need to be looking for exactly?"

"Old ruins like these tended to have a fortified holdout point, usually high up, in case of Grimm incursion." The soldier answered simply, "The shape that'll be isn't something we know. Probably inside the mountain, somehow, though. A fortified cave, maybe, with a shrine in it. Some kind of small temple could be the thing, too, these cities sometimes have old, ruined temples like that. Look for something like that and call us on your Scrolls. We'll take it from there."

"While you do that, we'll be hiking around the base of the mountain and planting our monitor-beacons to keep watch out for the Grimm." The soldier went on, standing and gesturing with a hand at trio of crates stacked up at the base of the ramp. "That way, when we want to come back, we can always know if the Grimm are in numbers that would require a Hunter's assistance in the area."

"We'll get it- Hng." He grimaced and pressed a hand to his head, staggering back as what felt like a hot rod lodged between his eyes. Pyrrha caught him as his sight went dim, and when it returned he was outside, standing with her arms around his shoulders and staring up at the mountain's peak.

"Jaune...?"

"I'm okay." He lied, shrugging her hands off and smiling to reassure her, but unable for a long moment to look away from _whatever_ about the mountain had demanded his attention.

And whatever had whipped the Force into a sudden storm, and sent the iron spike of pain lancing through his brain. A storm that, even now, he could sense ripped through him and whipping around the mountain and making him wince in pain at each proverbial flash and crack. Something was up there, he could feel it now. And whatever it was, he _hadn't_ felt it a moment ago, and now it was receding quietly again, both facts enough to have him anxious and concerned.

What could exude such a pressure into the normally undilutable ocean of the Force and then withdraw it like that?

"Jaune, what's wrong?" When he turned, it was to five sets of eyes, behind helmets or not, watching him warily with Pyrrha at the fore. Nervous, worried, and _knowing_, she asked again, "Are you okay? What happened?"

"You spaced out, and you're so pale..." Nora added, eyes roving him in a way they never had before. Sharp, inspecting, analytical and knowing what she was looking for in a way that reminded him of Instructor during training and his mother whenever she thought he'd gotten hurt. "It was like you… Saw a ghost, or something."

"Just a… Bad feeling I had, all of the sudden. That's all, you guys." He shrugged, resting a hand on the base of his heavy sheath on his back and feeling the weight of his saber through it. Their concerned looks and echoes of anxiety persisted, though, and he waved it collectively off with a sigh. "Let it go, you guys. We'll be up there in a bit and we can find out what's going on."

"On that note…" The lieutenant pressed, waving a hand at the map in a clear ask. With a nod, Jaune turned back to the man and the map and he relaxed somewhat, "I think we're finished here and you know what you need to. So it's time we all get underway with the mission, so we can get it over with."

Jaune couldn't agree more and, hefting small packs of water, extra ammo and whatever else they could need on a hike, the foursome set off. Quietly and anxiously up, and into the old, sparse, green woodlands.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Ruby Rose!" Weiss shouted, hurling the door open and storming into the room with her towel wrapped tightly around her body and a scowl on her face. The dolt in question squawked suddenly and flailed, falling off her bed in a heap of sheets, blankets and her half-on uniform. Rolling her eyes, the Schnee demanded, "Where is my perfume, Ruby?"

"I-I don't, you know-"

"Ruby. Rose. You took it didn't you?" Her eyes narrowed further with each word, before she leaned forward over the girl and _sniffed_ meaningfully. The girl squeaked in protest but she was already off, "I knew it! That's my special Vacuoan Spice perfume, Ruby!"

"I just wanted a little bit because it smells nice, okay?" The girl pouted, withering into her blankets and sheets on the floor when Weiss' glare intensified and she rested her hands on her hips. Slowly but surely, a hand peeked up and out of the tangle of clothing and pointed to the work desk. "It's where I hide my sweets… I didn't want you to be mad at me."

"Then why steal my perfume?" She asked quietly, walking over and kneeling to dig the expensive black bottle out from between Ruby's 'secret' stash of cookies. Shrugging off her towel, she set about getting dressed quickly and added, "I wouldn't be mad if you didn't steal my perfume."

"I'm sorry, Weiss..." Ruby pouted, standing and pitching her blankets and sheets in a wad up to her hanging bunk. Seeing Weiss getting ready, she set to doing the same, straightening her own uniform and pulling her cloak on. Pouting, she offered, "I just… I just like how it smells, I guess."

"Why wear it, though?" She asked quietly, giving the younger girl a look over her shoulder while she buttoned up her blouse. "You always say you don't care for girly stuff like perfume. Always smelling like gun oil, Dust and sweets has been your game."

"I dunno. I'm not super into all that stuff, but… I dunno, you know?" The girl shrugged, throwing her arms up in surrender and flopping down on her partner's immaculately made bed. A bed that very swiftly lost any right to that description, much to Weiss' chagrin, though she forced herself to ignore it. "I like how I smell but sometimes… I just wanna smell like a normal girl with normal smells."

"I feel like a two thousand Lien bottle of perfume is _not_ helpful for that." Vacuoan imported spice perfume didn't exactly scream 'subtlety' at one's nostrils, after all.

"But it's my favorite one in the room." Ruby shrugged simply, eyes closed while she relaxed and toyed with one of her combat boots, laying on the floor alongside her combat outfit. "Yang's is too harsh, way too punchy and stuff. And Blake's… Just doesn't smell as nice, you know?"

"You understand there are _implications_ about partners wandering around together smelling of each other's perfume, yes? Implications that could fuel all sorts of nasty rumors." Weiss saw Ruby flush and, in a flash, the girl was on her feet, waving her hands and stammering ou weak, embarrassed protests. To be clear, before the girl collected herself, Weiss added, "I'm less concerned with being linked to you, take no offence. Rather, I am more afraid of my father causing problems for all of us. Blake especially, if he finds out the truth about what she is.""

"No, no, no, I don't wanna do that! Really, I mean, I-I don't want to get you into trouble or anything, I just wanted to steal your perfume!" She almost squealed, words running together while she tried to reassure Weiss of her purely ignoble goal. "I promise, I would never="

"Take a breath and hush, Ruby. Before you have a fit or make a mess. Or, well, more a mess than you and the room already are, frankly." Weiss snorted in amusement and waved her off, rolling her eyes and turning with the perfume in hand, "Here, you dolt. Take it and calm down already, you're freaking out like a child."

"I can use it?" She blinked, surprised and then, in a quiet, conspiratorial whisper adding, "But you said that there'd be… Implications."

"If I don't wear it any longer, then there will be no implications that can be problematic." Weiss smiled, turning to pick up her blazer and finish getting dressed while she hid her smile at the way the young girl whispered 'implications'. "I will simply get some more when we go into- What are you doing?"

"Nothing!" Ruby said innocently, before slamming into Weiss' back with a bone crushing hug while the Schnee scowled and kicked, trying to fight her way free. Holding on from behind her, the Rose hugged her partner, "Oh, Weiss! You're just the best partner ever! You know that?"

"Yes, and I would know that just as well on the _ground_ you absolute-"

"Weiss!" Blake almost shouted as she slammed through the door, eyes wide and shoulders heaving. Seeing and hearing the urgency, Ruby let Weiss go and Blake was one her, pressing her Scroll into her hands, "It's all over the news, Weiss! People are- People are talking and calling me 'catwoman', I don't- What the hell do we do about this?"

Breathless with surprise, the Schnee took the Scroll and looked at it, and felt her heart _freeze_. Bright and clear, right on a news headline, was a bold statement. 'The Schnee at the petting Zoo'. And below it, ever so slightly foggy for the glass of the door but clear as day nonetheless, was a picture of her with Blake's ears in her hands.

"Oh…" She murmured, stunned into frigid, weak silence and shock, "That's… Bad." As if on cue, Weiss heard her own Scroll vibrating its alert, and picked it up off the same simple desk. Flicking it open she felt her stomach plummet yet again and, trembling, put the phone to her ear, "Y-Yes, Father?"

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

As they hiked, they also dispersed somewhat, spacing out for better sight through the sparsely packed and arching trees. Nora and Ren, fast enough and used to travel like this in a way Pyrrha and, in truth, Jaune were, took the flanks and moved ahead. Acting as pseudo-scouts, who could simultaneously deal with any Grimm they found and get away from any they couldn't deal with faster than he or Pyrrha reasonably could.

At least, faster than they could do as _easily_ without expending more effort or ostensibly Aura in doing it, since Ren was their fastest and Nora was quite literally rocket propelled.

The trees were large, and their roots gnarled through the dirt for several feet around them. But unlike the forest around Ansel, the trees themselves had grown far apart from each other, with vines crawling up their sides and bushes full of berries clustered around their roots. A couple times on their walk already, he'd heard Ren, without seeming to _look_, chide Nora against eating any of the berries and heard her call back that she wasn't. But aside from that it was quiet, calm, and with the distant echoes of birdsong, wings beating and wood peckers murdering innocent trees to get at the insects inside them.

And then he sensed Pyrrha's sudden resolve, a shift from her previous anxiety, and felt her step closer to him.

"You sensed something back there, didn't you, Jaune?" She asked, earning a mourning sigh from him and, just after, a small nod. A wave of emotions washed off of her at the statement and her face reflected it, shifting from surprise, to fear, and then to apathy and finally surety before she sighed and nodded in return. "I see. What did you sense precisely?"

"I don't know." He answered quietly, much to both of their chagrin. Smiling weakly to ward it off, he gave her a look and a nod, "I know, Pyr. It's troublesome, to say the very least. But I didn't sense anything specific enough to name it."

"Describe it if you can not name it, then." She suggested, giving him a small smile when he turned to give her a look. "That way we can at least think with the same information as the other, while we seek out the cause. It would be a good effort for us, given we're doing this together, after all."

"I… Guess you have a point, yeah." He sighed, thinking while they walked and, distantly, he checked to make sure their formation was holding. And of course that neither Ren or Nora were paying attention to them. After a moment, he began to explain as best he could, "It was like… A tidal wave, of sorts. Of pressure, echoing the Dark but mixed with the Light. Like debris the wave picked up along the way."

"Poetic."

"Poetry is spoken art to describe the world's beauty, and the Force is naught but the beauty of that which surrounds us." His teacher's old words came forth without any effort, as drilled into his flesh and bones as the ligaments that kept them all attached were. An easy recalling that, as always, put a smile on his face at the old memories, as bitter as some of them were. "So I can't help but describe the aspects of it poetically."

"Hm. A fair answer." The woman nodded, ducking under a branch he held out of her way, going through the slight blockage rather than forcing the formation to shift further around it. "Is the… Tidal wave still there, then?"

"No." He answered simply, "It blasted out with its power and presence and then receded just as quickly as it came in the first place. It was almost like it-"

"Like it was asking for your attention, and then withdrew once it knew it had been noticed?" Pyrrha offered quietly, swallowing through a no doubt dry throat when he nodded simply. As confused as he was, though probably for different reasons that Jaune's own confusion, "That's… Disturbing, Jaune. What could even do such a thing?"

"I don't know, really." He sighed, frowning at the numerous considerations that there were in that question. Force sorcery sprang to mind, though he only knew tertiarily what _that_ could do and thinking about it was more an act of not discounting it than alleging it. "Aside from a Force ghost or spirit, which ought to be rare, I can't think of anything that could possibly have acted like that. And _those_ shouldn't have been able to tell if I noticed them, I think."

"You think?" Pyrrha challenged, "You don't know, then?"

"I'm not a Master, Pyrrha." He pointed out as the incline began to steepen and the hike began to get harder as they neared where they'd been told the ruins would be, and thus their target. "A Master would have been able to answer all your questions. Hell, a Master would have been able to _communicate_ with whatever that was."

"Guys!Your Queen approaches with exciting news!" The duo flinched and turned, Nora jogging towards them with Magnhild in one hand, the head landing like a heavy walking stick as she went. As Ren approached, slower and more wary, she came to a stop and pointed back the way she'd come, "I found a cave! It had, like, walls and stuff around it. I looked inside and saw, like, a wall with pictures."

"We should signal the-"

"No." Jaune cut Pyrrha off, the sensation from earlier returning, though gentler this time. Almost beckoning him, like it wanted him to follow it. To see something, maybe, or do something. He couldn't tell, though, and simply grunted, "Nora, show me the cave. We need to make sure it's something worthwhile, and that it's not some kind of Grimm trap."

"We've not seen any Grimm, though." Ren pointed out gently, shrugging when Jaune turned and met his gaze. "But you're the leader. Nora, lead the way, we'll check it out."

"Okay." The girl nodded, giving Jaune a nervous look but smiling slightly when he offered her a small, reassuring nod. "Okay men and Pyrrha!" She crowed, turning and raising Magnhild high in the air like a commander's baton, "Follow your Queen to her most intriguing discovery! But be on your guard, for who knows what lurks in the woods?"

Nothing but wildlife that avoided them was 'lurking' in the woods, he knew, but he didn't see a reason to spoil her fun. Instead, with a small bark of laughter, he fell in line behind 'his queen' and followed her. Her energy made for a good distraction, even if he easily noticed it. But he knew that it was her way of being supportive of her team, since she saw the tension as well as anyone else did, and so he let it go and simply allowed himself to enjoy it. For her sake as well as everyone else's.

The cave she led them to was a small thing, but clearly of some importance. An old, thick and well and truly ruined wall had once sealed it shut, but now seemed to have fallen through in the middle. The opening left just enough space for Jaune to slip in, and the others to follow one at a time, but not much else. Including light unfortunately, but he had a solution to _that_ well in hand.

Literally, in fact.

With a dull hum, his saber ignited on both ends and he held it high so he could see. The roof was low and natural, formed over the Force only knew how many years of neglect or simply left as such by the builders here, but the cave's sides were flatter and made of brickwork. The walls themselves were pale, and on closer inspection, most definitely _not_ made of the local granite. But instead what he suspected to be marble, or something like it. The cave continued inwards for about ten feet before suddenly ending with a flat, soldier wall decorated by old, red symbols.

"See what I mean?" Nora asked, waving a hand at it, "Gibberish!"

"No, it says 'Show proof of your power, and break that which bars your path as chains that bind you and hold you still." Jaune corrected, pursing his lips for a long second and turning, using the light of the blade to illuminate more words further to the side. "It says after that that 'inside will be chains yet more, for a lord to tame and crack in measures of judgement their forged of iron will. And through success of power, strength bestowed of yet more until you find your ambition filled'."

"You can read this?" Ren asked quietly, stepping up on one side while Pyrrha occupied his other. "How? I didn't know you studied ancient languages."

"My teacher taught me the language years and years ago." He answered, giving Pyrrha a meaningful look and then grimacing at her nod. With a sigh, he let his eyes close and reached out, probing with the Force. Feeling a node of _something_, he grunted and flicked his free hand, "There."

With a low, old, and almost cliched rumble, the wall slid back and ground to the side. It stopped halfway, jammed by whatever was there, but the path was clear enough for them and Jaune stepped back.

"Call the archeologists now." He said quietly, looking at the dark, metal tunnel and the old, grated floor he was so familiar with. "Tell them we found something interesting, and they should… Come and see it."

Because if this was the kind of 'temple' they'd talked about, he had a great number of questions. And something to offer in exchange for them.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Going forward, I will not be responding to RWBY haters of ANY kind at all. Not to defend myself, not to defend RWBY, not to defend my stories, and not to defend ships. RWBY is a wonderful, if imperfect, show and I am ONLY here to celebrate and love it. That is all I am here for and all I wish to say on the matter either now or in the future.**_

_**Those who know they are with me on this, sorry for the numerous addressings of this. It won't happen again, I promise. **_

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Zenith Tempest :**_

**The purposes of the items given would shape the story a bit, not the other way around. That said, I don't want him to become uber powerful god tier, so a harrower is maybe a bit of overkill. Would be HILARIOUS, true, but overkill. So something like armor, or a weapon, or information, or something smaller like a gunship or something would fit a bit better.**

_**Phaedo Symposium :**_

**Glad you liked it!**

_**Argus :**_

**All shall be revealed soon~**

_**Richard Blue :**_

**I shan't spoil anything, but ANY factions that DO show up will not do so for a LONG time.**

_**Dr. Killinger :**_

**It would be cool, yeah, but… I don't know where I'd go after that, really. That would very likely be the end of the story.**

_**Knightwolf :**_

**All true, and stuff i shall think on.**


	19. The Temple : Part II

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

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_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"You can actually _read_ this?" The lieutenant asked when he joined them and Ren finished explaining the gist of what had happened. Jaune nodded, leaned against the still and half-open door, and the man snorted a disbelieving laugh. "How? The Division's troopers are supposed to be the only ones that have studied it."

"My master taught me." Jaune explained, answering the man's question and his team's other partner pair's curiosity in one fell, and blessedly honest, stroke. Honesty with unfortunate brevity, since he needed to explained further, "I understood the words and used my Semblance, and it… Just sort of worked."

"Your Semblance?" In answer, Jaune held his saber out and let it go, spinning it in the air with a twirl of his finger. "A telekinetic Semblance? Intriguing…"

"It's… He had an old religion and used it to interpret my Semblance, when I unlocked it." He explained quietly, "It was mostly a tradition for him, I think. But meeting me he figured that it might be hereditary, and me one of their descendants. Since my Semblance is so similar to what he'd read about, I mean."

"And that let you open the door?"

"The door moved when I told it to, yeah." He nodded, pushing off the wall and giving the soldier a nod. Seeing the chance to dig a little, he smiled and went on quietly,"It's probably keyed into people that can do these sorts of things. I'd bet there's been plenty of us, in fact, we just haven't found any of these temples. You said they were rare?"

"Atlas had one, we had to dig under and founder the entry tunnel." The soldier answered, smirking at the apparent surprise on Jaune's face. "The temple's defenses and what few rooms we've gained access to are where our more advanced technology and robotic force deployment come from. Which… Technically I'm not supposed to tell you."

"Why do it, then?" Jaune asked, "If you aren't supposed to tell us about it, why bother? Couldn't you get in trouble?"

"Yeah, but, you know… It's complicated in a lot of ways I don't want to get into just now." Seeing their dislike of that answer, the man sighed and explained as best he probably could in a briefer time than he'd probably have liked, "We have one temple and in that, only a couple rooms are accessible. It's not even really secure yet, sometimes these… Robots come out of nowhere and attack us, trying to push us out."

"Security droids?" Jaune asked, "For the Temple?"

"Yeah, that's the working theory. They always hit us when we least expect it, and always when we have some kind of weakness." The soldier answered, sounding exasperated in the extreme in a way Jaune could understand. At least distantly. "A blizzard, maybe, or Grimm attacking outlying outposts and needing reinforcements. But his Semblance can interact with the mechanisms in these places, apparently. And that could save a lot of lives, at the temples and elsewhere with the new technology we could gain, and time spent there to boot."

"If Jaune agrees to help you, you mean." Ren pointed out, coming to his defense with a sudden firmness and echoing suspicion and dislike that surprised the young warrior. At least, until the young man explained further, "I'm assuming from your surety, though, that you have a reason you presume he will."

"A lot of Lien, first rights to some of the stuff in this ruin and a chance to seek contracting for similar, and friends in Atlesian command sound like good reasons to agree to you?" The man asked simply, giving the foursome a look. When no one argued with him he nodded, a small smile back on his lips, "I thought so. So, to be official, we have two options. I can inspect what I can while you protect me, and we go back to Beacon for the standard reward."

"Or we work together to search the temple and open it up, and we get a special reward." Pyrrha guessed, earning a small nod from the armored man and then sighing. Likely knowing his answer already and disliking it - the woman wanted to _avoid_ the kind of spotlight helping Atlas would bring, of course - she asked, "It seems a good offer to me. What do you think, Jaune? You would be the one doing the heavy duty on this, after all."

"It is, yeah… What do you think, guys?" He asked instead of answering right away, "Ren? Nora? Your thoughts?"

"It would be a great opportunity to help people." Ren answered simply, always a man of few words and simple goals. "And so long as the contracting is good, a good opportunity for you and for us as a team."

"Nora?"

"I'll go wherever Renny goes." She shrugged uncaringly, lacing her fingers behind her head and leaning against the wall. With another shrug, she added a simple, no nonsense, "And he's right. This is a good way to take care of ourselves and help people, too."

"Fair points all around, yourself included, Lieutenant." Jaune nodded, having started the conversation set on what he was going to do but glad he didn't need to _convince_ his team of anything. It was convenient if nothing else. "Fine then. Lead the way in and let's see if my Semblance can get us a few open doors, before we make any more permanent arrangements like you're talking about."

"And that's a fair request, except… Well, not to be rude or anything, you know, but..." He gestured with his off hand at the students in front of him and then grimaced, turning to look at the door with a small sigh. Jaune already knew what he was going to say before he said it, but it earned a small and knowing chuckle regardless when he finally did, "You're all more likely to be able to deal with the security this place is bound to have. And I _am_ having you paid for my protection."

"Pyrrha, you and I go first." He ordered with a small chuckle that itself earned one from the soldier as well. Letting his saber hiss to life on one end, he took a step towards the door and took a long, deep breath to steady himself. "Lieutenant Black can walk in the middle with Nora and Ren, you take the back. We know we need to watch out for robotic defences and traps, I guess, but we don't know what's in here beyond that. Be careful, everyone."

There was a short chorus of quiet, somewhat nervous affirmations as his team and their person of interest fell into his ordered formation. But he didn't take the first step through into the temple personally, even if his heart had started to pound its excitement and he itched to be inside a temple of his youth again, in spite of it likely being a _very_ different temple. Instead, he nodded Pyrrha forward and she stepped through, the saber-wielding young man right on her heel.

Through the door was a long hallway much like the one that Instructor had, once upon a time, saved him in. The same sorts of lights flickered to life along the ceiling and, for a moment, he felt… Nostalgic. Like he could expect Instructor to open the sealed far door at any moment and threaten to burn out one of his eyes if he didn't get to the training hall in five minutes, or to lock him in the isolation chamber if he couldn't recite an old text from memory while dodging stun-bolts from his blaster.

Not _good_ times, per se, but there was something to be said about the power nostalgia held over things like that.

The door on the other end was automated and not locked, either by virtue of his using the Force before like the riddle - such as it had been - had wanted or simply because it had never _been_ locked he couldn't be sure. Regardless it groaned and creaked opened, sliding into the wall to the side and admitting them through.

"Well this is kinda cool…" Nora murmured as they stepped through and spread out, leaving the soldier behind them where he was safest.

The room was circular and, oddly enough, around the same size and of the same aesthetic as his temple home. Like the temple of his youth, it was dominated by a statue, though this one lacked the pedestal the one he knew so well had beet set on. Though that didn't diminish its height, even for its kneeling position in the center of the room. Were it to stand, he was sure it would only be a few feet short of the curved, wide roof above. Unlike the room around it, the statue was oddly… Silvery, in a dull, metallic kind of way. Like it had been made of an entirely separate metal than anything else he'd seen.

One that echoed strangely through the Force, reflective and absorbant in a way he couldn't quite place.

Another difference between here and his temple home of old was that instead of three doors, there was only one. Larger than the others and wrought of some dark metal he couldn't place, it was twice as tall as he was and painted a black like midnight. In the center, in the place of any sort of button, handle or switch to open or close it, was a white circle. And painted upon it was a symbol made of blue wings flanking a one-handed saber. A symbol Jaune knew well enough from his studies and Instructor's long, albeit rare for their lack of time, lectures on galactic history.

The symbol of the _Jedi_.

"Jaune?" The Mistralian with him asked, eyes full of caution and question when he turned to her. When he had paced around the statue to approach the door, he wasn't sure. But now he was past the statue, close to the door further in than the one they'd come through, and the woman looked concerned. "What is that symbol on the door? Do you know it?"

"It's… A symbol from my Master's teachings. Of a teaching that ran somewhat parallel to his own creed's, albeit on a more…" He paused for a second, unsure of how to phrase the complaints that the Sith and, to a lesser extent, Revanism both held with the Order. Eventually he settled on, "Self-restricting bent to _super_ undersell how bad it was and that we can't really get into right here and now."

"Can you give me the gist?" Black asked, joining the foursome as it approached the door in a loose mimicry of the formation Jaun had ordered.

'Loose' in that only the soldier had kept his spot, staying beside Nora at all times. Typical, Jaune supposed, for the literal soldier to display more discipline than any of his team. Though, to be fair, they did hold back a few steps, letting Jaune and Pyrrha both hold the front of their sparse formation.

"The gist is simple, though it'll leave you with more questions than answers." The soldier nodded, not seeming to mind, and Jaune sighed. Honestly, he'd hoped that the man would let it go at that… "The Sith are one side of a coin. Passion for power, pound for pound, and the more they give in the more power they could gain. Madness took them, usually, as they lost themselves to passion and power, and the _need_ for more of both until it crushed them."

"The Jedi, on the other hand, are the opposite. Devoid of passion such as what would drive a Sith, like love, or hate, or desire, they would abdicate their _humanity_ in search of inner peace." And in exchange, shackle themselves to a nothingness that consumed all they were, he didn't add. He didn't need to add his own personal beliefs here and draw more questions and curiosity than he already sensed. "The last is the path of Balance. Passion tempered by coolheadedness, and a search for power tempered by patience and virtue. Simply put, a path between the two sides of the coin."

"And which are you?"

"I don't…" He sighed and gave the soldier a look and and a small smile, tired and thin but comfortable still. "I'm none of them. They're just old stories, Lieutenant Black. Now, do you want me to read the inscription or tell more old stories?"

"The inscription, please." The man answered, "I was just… Curious."

"Alright, well…" He paused to sheath his saber, letting it rest on his back and looking over the old, worn sigils. "It says 'The way of the path is in service to another's cause and the finding of power in submission to that which you need not face as foe, and can not best with blow. The sacrifice of the violence of the self for the other, the epitome of Light, Life and Death.' And, below that, 'Speak unto the beginning' which…" He blinked as, behind them, steel ground and engines whine, and then sighed, "Oh shit."

"Uh… The statue's moving." Nora murmured as Jaune turned, recalling his saber and stepping forward as the great, smooth golem stood. Magnhild in her hands, she herded the soldier back with her as physical cover and asked, "Is it _supposed_ to do that, Fearless Leader?"

The droid, that was what it had to be, whirred and chinked as it stood. Great, stubby finger sand smooth surfaced limbs made of the same silver metal. Its head, squashed and oval shaped like the kind of stone you could bounce along the surface of water, turned to him and eyes opened, glowing a dim red as three fingered hands spread and it _thrummed_ a warning. For all its no doubt high technology, it looked to him like a golem right out of a movie, set to life by a wizard's touch.

And it was staring down at him, leering like a predator with prey in front of it.

"Ren, protect Black." He ordered quickly, his blades flickering to hissing life as the golem lumbered forth. "Pyrrha, Nora, flank to either side. I'll take the center. I doubt it understands my words, so I'll take out a knee and you two go for its eyes."

The duo didn't say anything and instead shot to either side, long strides carrying them around the room with all the speed they could muster. The machine whirred its interest and watched them but didn't attack, head turning and great, long arms drooping like an ape to scrape along the ground.

Spinning on a heel, Nora set the battle to its start, shifting her hammer to its launcher form and sending smoke grenades spindling between Jaune and the machine. Now the Golem's whirring was angry as it rounded on her, lumbering forward and bringing a hand up and back in a great, three-fingered fist. Jaune shot forward before it took its second step and its eyes swiveled to meet him in reaction. It turned, aiming to bring the fist down on him instead, but it was too slow to keep up with his Force-enhanced speed as he swept between its legs and turned, staff gripped wide in both hands, and lashed out at the back of a knee.

With a hissing recoil, the blades bounced off and he stumbled away, eyes wide in surprise. A fist followed up his shock, cudgeling him back across the room and into the closed entry door they'd come in through. He cried out as he hit, Aura _barely_ snapping up in time to dampen the herculean force, and his saber winked out for a moment.

Blinking, he forced himself onto a knee and looked up in time to see another fist coming in for him. Then his view was obscured by pale skin, bronze armor and long, red hair. The fist slammed home and forced her back into him as he stood, crushed _both_ of them against the wall with so much force he felt they would be mashed together. The fist snapped back then and came back in like a lightning bolt, far faster than should have been possible, forcing the Mistralian woman back against him and drawing a pained cry from her throat.

One hand gripping his saber he wrapped the other around her hip and hooked his fingers under her leather skirt, wrenching her aside faster than he could have asked her to move. She rolled to the side, knowing better than to resist him, and, leaning against the wall for support, he let his hands snap up and cried out, guttural and beastly.

The machine staggered a step and Nora launched in, swinging Maghnhild up and between the machine's legs like she hoped to ring its bells. The _clang_ echoed around them but it didn't budge, hand snapping down and grabbing her faster than Jaune could blink. Its fingers closed around her and lifted her up, head poking out of the bottom of its fist and feet kicking while she desperately fought to keep it from closing its grip.

Holding her before its gaze like a child with something of interest, it squeezed and Nora gasped a cry as the fingers closed.

"No!" Pyrrha shouted when Jaune took a staggering step forward to help her, the woman rounding on him and wiping away the blood from a busted lip. Eyes hard and glinting, she pointed at him with her sword and ordered, "Solve the riddle. That's what we need here, right?"

"But-"

"NORA!" Ren cried, abandoning his assignment wholly and launching towards the machine with wide, feral eyes.

Whirring, and crushing Nora in its grip, it turned with its free arm oriented towards the young man as Ren charged. Leaping, he ran up a fist that cut through the air and slammed into the ground where he'd been standing, his Storm Flowers blaring fire into its apathetic face. Not a single round did anything, though, and Pyrrha moved to join the man. Instead of attacking, though, she sent her weapons home on her back and leapt, climbing a leg towards Nora and grabbing onto its fingers.

Only for it to release Nora and send them _both_ tumbling as it turned to Ren and Black, the latter kneeling by the far door and firing heavy slugs at it from afar.

"Submission… The sacrifice of the violence of the self…" He murmured, looking down at the saber in his hands. "Service of another's cause, and that which you need not face as foe. A Jedi symbol, too… That's it. It only attacks in response to _our_ attacks."

With a flick, he lit his saber's two ends and lumbered forward, raising his voice and bellowing, "Stop this, all of you!"

And they did, the machine lumbering to a stop with its foot pressing down against Pyrrha, who held her shield against its force desperately, holding up its titanic weight as best she could. The others, though, staggered away and looked to him, either for trust or surprise at his orders he couldn't be sure.

Cautiously but firmly, he walked forward, looking the machine in the eyes until he reached the foot bearing down on his partner. It hummed curiously as he knelt, and he whispered to his partner, "Trust me, okay, Pyr?"

Without waiting for her answer, he turned and slashed the blade of his saber across the machine's singe. It thrummed again in fury and he leapt back as it followed, releasing his partner as it refocused on its newest attacker. Raising one hand towards it like he would an animal, he took a deep breath and flicked the ends of his saber off. With all the force he could manage, he chucked it to the side and the machine came to a stop, watching the weapon roll away for several long seconds.

When it turned back to look at him he bowed his head and knelt, hands spread to either side and kneeling on the ground. Quietly, but loud enough to be heard, he spoke, letting the Force carry its meaning to the machine like a boat sent to a distant, wayward island, "I am sorry we attacked you. Please, we would like to head into the temple, if you permit us access. But please, don't hurt my friends any more."

For a long, tense moment, the golem watched him, as though it were waiting for him to attack or processing his words. Then, impossibly slowly, it turned and lumbered towards the far door, one hand stretching out to press a finger to its surface right at the base of the symbol's saber. Then it turned and returned to its spot, sitting as it once had with its arms wrapped around its legs and tucked against its chest, though now its head stayed raised, red eyes watching them curiously.

Then, with a heavy groan and the grinding of metal, the door slid open and his team blinked. Beyond was another passage like the first, with another door at its end, but the two doors had opened.

"Thank you." He called, rising and calling his blade back to him with the Force.

"_Whirr-boo-thrum_." It warned, eyes watching the weapon closely.

"Easy." He soothed awkwardly, unsure about how to exactly _soothe_ a giant droid. Sliding the saber into place on his back and smiling, he added a gentle. "We won't hurt you anymore, I promise. Thank you for opening the door."

"_Whiirrr_." It, well, _whirred_, seemingly satisfied with his promise and watching him calmly.

"How did you _do_ that? I wanna boop it!" Nora asked as he approached them, smiling excitedly and bouncing towards the robot. Reflexively, it whirred again and loosened its grips on its legs, ready to attack, but Nora only smiled and laid Magnhild aside like he'd done. Smiling, she asked, "Can I boop your nose, please and thank you?"

"Nora…"

"Just gimme a second, Jaune, come ooon." She waved him off, standing stock still at its feet and raising one hand high. Then, theatrically, she booped herself gently on the nose, bounced on her heel and smiled, leaning forward with her hips thrust back innocently and chiming, "Booop! See, doesn't hurt. It's a nice thing to do. Friendly! Here, do me, do me!"

"_Whirre-thrum-whirr."_ The machine answered gently, unfurling a hand and, gentler than should have been possible, pressed a long and silver finger to her forehead. The girl smiled and was pushed back, shoes scraping against the floor, and the machined chimed a simple, "_Whiiiirrrr."_

"Oh my Dust, I got booped by a giant _freaking robot_! In an ancient lost ruin! It's like I'm in a _t.v. show_, or something, Ren!" The girl enthused, the Golem recoiling from her exuberance. Turning, the girl launched towards the grouped trio of the rest of her team, and Black behind them besides, and crowed, "Did you guys _see_ that!? It's so cute when it isn't, you know, trying to murder us all!"

With an exhausted, collective groan, the four of them coached their fifth member towards the door further in. All the while, she bounced excitedly, turning to wave goodbye to the large machine before they left fully. With a loud whirr, it returned the gesture, head bobbing side to side happily.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**So about a hundred under the typical 4K for me, but I have excuses- I mean reasons! I designed the entire dungeon sequence and wanted the first trial to be by itself. Next chapter will start with the Weiss situation, but for this one I wanted to focus on Jaune and Co. **_

_**The other reasons are simple : **_

_**I've been sick and exhausted for a couple days, since Sunday, and Friday and Saturday I spent on Re:Programmed stuff. The first bit of which should hopefully be coming out soonishly on AO3 and a couple other locales.**_

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Human Dragon :**_

**There was a slight delay due to working on original content and also the dungeon sequences I have set up for this next few chapters. Glad you're enjoying though!**

_**Green the Ryno :**_

**They do! And I have been seeing less and less support for this story with each chapter of their efforts. Sucks but… If a handful of people enjoy a story, that is enough for me to write it. **

**Also, yes, Weiss is gonna have **_**fun**_ **dealing with all of this racket. I dare not ship WR, though, for I shall tempt the hatedom again! Lol. In all seriousness, your review made me chuckle.**

_**Gnaoh el Nart :**_

**I won't confirm what he will get but he, **_**and others**_**, will definitely get stuff from SW's canon. Time period not set on that, either, since it is never stated in-story what SW time period this is set in.**

**Enjoy~!**


	20. Family Issues Part I

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_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Hello, Weiss. So _good_ to hear from you after such a long time." The man, her father, spoke quietly and evenly as always. "I am assuming from your tone of voice that you already know why I am calling you, though."

But behind that evenness and calm surface she could feel every syllable filled with a kind of edged, subtle disappointment that threatened her in ways she couldn't quantify if asked. Aside from the threat of tuition withheld, and an end to her time at Beacon, of course. _That_, at least, she could easily quantify for people if they asked.

"Y-Yes, Father." She stammered, letting Blake slide a chair under her and taking the seat. Sitting and with Ruby and Blake both beside her, she felt herself calm at least enough to talk, and tried to do so. "Blake- That is to say, my teammate, she showed it to me when she herself saw it. I was doing an assignment with my partner, though, and thus only just found it."

"Blake." The man said the word like it was dirty, asking after a second, "That would be the Faunus you've been saddled with, no?"

"Yes, Father." Though the idea she'd been 'saddled with her' didn't sit well, now was _not_ the time to argue it. Instead she offered information in volume, to hopefully answer whatever questions her father could have and please him. Or at least avoid aggravating him by making him need to ask her. "She is my partner's sister's partner, and she was… Coming out to me, I suppose. I was curious, and the location was _supposed_ to guarantee our privacy-"

"What was the place's name?" He asked quietly, interrupting her as easily as breathing.

And while she didn't like throwing a place under the bus for what was probably just some random paparazzi or passerby seeing a chance…

"A small and private karaoke and bar named, I believe, _Dine and Dance Dust to Dust_." She was genuinely unsure of the place's name, though, and rapidly offered as a backup. "I-I'm unsure, though, since it was meant not to be a big deal and I was distracted. I did, however, purchase food there. So checking my financials should provide details."

She was already throwing innocent people under the bus as it was. She at least wanted to throw the _right_ place under it. All would be innocent, of course, but they at least did fail to uphold her promise of privacy. So while innocent, she could see a way to rationalize at least pinning it to the ones that had a responsibility they'd failed.

"I will certainly be reviewing your financials, of that you can be sure, young woman." Even when he _agreed_ with her suggestions he was aggravated and aggressive. It was as she'd expected, though, and she masked all but a grimace at his snappish tone. Even if she was certain Blake's more sensitive ears would hear him nonetheless. "And just so you aware if I see anything related to catering to your _pet_ we will have a very different second phone call."

"Yes, Father." Her hand curled into a fist at the 'pet' remark, but Blake's hand on her shoulder eased the aggravation somewhat. "I assure you I have purchased nothing for my…" At a glance from the Schnee Blake grimaced and nodded, earning a small frown from Weiss, "For my p-pet. I would never squander SDC finances on such- Such wastrels."

"Good. At least you understand _something_ then, even if this ought never have happened. Keep your pet leashed in your room and your hands on her there only from now on." And just like that Blake had been commodified into some petty plaything and, even if she seemed resigned to it and willing to suffer it for Weiss' sake, it rankled her. Still, Jacques sounded somewhat pleased when she didn't argue, and he went on dryly, "At least you're a woman as well, so there's no chance of sullying the family line."

"_A line you married into and have no claim on…"_ She wanted to say, just to see him flinch. Or hear him flinch, at the very least, since he'd not elected to make a video call. As savory as it would have been, though, she knew the canned response to give, "Yes, Father. I would never… Never sully our name with such disgustingly flagrant and irresponsible actions."

"Hmph. Good girl, at least in _this_ regard you have some damn understanding of the way you ought to behave." The man sounded angry to be pleased, somehow. Like he'd wanted an excuse to more heavily punish her, or shout her down. Who really even knew, maybe he did? "I will be filing suit against Beacon and this karaoke place for these fallacious, clearly fictitious claims, however."

"W-What?" But Beacon hadn't _done_ anything! Fighting for her cool, though, and knowing that either pleading or demanding would only worsen the situation, she tried to argue, "Father, please, Beacon isn't involved in-"

"Not directly, they are not, no. You're quite right about that, my dear." The man freely admitted, sounding almost amused at her for pointing the fact out. Which to be frank was probably the case, and he continued in the same haughty, 'educating you' sort of tone. The kind he often used and that she _always_ despised to its deepest core. "First and foremost, Beacon is an institution of prestige and old acclaim. As such, they like to overly negotiate our supplying prices, and if we protest too loudly a gaggle of nitwit lawyers shows up to heckle us about 'contractual obligations. And they didn't even inform me they were placing you on a team with one of those animals!"

"I doubt they knew, Father." She tried gently, still hoping somewhat naively to protect Beacon from her father's politicking and capitalistic shenanigans. "She was hiding the fact, after all. I wouldn't be surprised if no one in the staff was made aware."

"Negligence is no excuse, but you're right. I shall ensure that is added to the list of charges." She bit her lip hard enough that it hurt in response, Aura or no, but he was unaware of the fact and went on. "Negligence in not knowing who was attending their school, or for not informing me about who was on my daughter's team, the result is the same. And after not making you the leader? The absolute disrespect!"

"Yes, Father." He was seeking a way to go after Beacon, she saw that now. Hopefully he wouldn't hurt the school too terribly. "I am sorry to cause trouble, Father."

"Hmph. As you should be. No daughter of mine should be absent-minded enough to let someone see her indulging herself with one of those _half-breeds_." Again, the only thing that calmed her was Blake's hand on her shoulder, telling her it was okay not to snap or lash out. That it was fine to let it go. So she did and, when she was silent, the man sighed, "Go about your day, girl. I have lawyers to call, and if you are seen hiding away that will be an admission of guilt on the matter. So be normal, as though _nothing_ strange is going on."

"Yes, Father." She answered quietly, "I understand. I'll… Keep my head down without it being apparent, Father."

"Good girl. I'll be in touch." And that was all he had to say before he ended the call..

No goodbyes or 'I love you', or even assurances that the problems he saw with her having a Faunus teammate would be resolved. Even if she didn't see the same problem, she'd have seen the _gesture_ of his assurances as something kind. But no. He was done and so the conversation was over. As usual…

"Weiss? Are you okay?" Ruby asked, standing beside her and watching her carefully. Something on Weiss' face must have worried her because the young Rose blinked quickly and grimaced, forcing a smile on her face that even _Weiss herself_ knew was pinched and forced feeling, "Do you… Want a hug? Would that help?"

"No. Of course not. I'm not some child that needs hugs when she's sad, you know." She pouted, and then grimaced and then, after a second of thought, held an arm out. The younger girl took the opening and knelt, sliding in for a hug that was, admittedly, very comforting and warm. "Thank you…"

"Of course! You're my bestie more than the restie even if you're kinda testy, Weissy." Rub murmured. Weiss able to hear and feel her words reverberate in her chest from how the girl had leaned down into the hug, thus pushing Weiss' face against the younger and larger girl's chest, and the chuckle that followed her silly little rhyming joke managed to sap some of the Schnee's anxiety in spite of herself. Eventually, Ruby asked a quiet, "That better, yet?"

"Yes, I… I feel better, yes." And surprisingly, that was the truth. Though when Ruby pulled away she did find she missed the warmth the girl held. Ignoring that and turning, she stood and met Blake's pensive gaze, "What do you want to do about this, Blake?"

"What do _I_ want to do?"

"You're as involved as I am, Blake." Moreso, even, given that her father might paint her as some carnal fiend and Weiss the victim. How he could spin that, she had _no_ idea, but she was sure the army of SDC lawyers would have ideas about it. Cocking a hip and resting a hand on it she went on, "If you want, you could hide behind my father's lawyers and he'd protect you. If only because it would help to protect me."

"I- That is a terrible idea, Weiss. Sweet, but terrible." Blake murmured, seeming surprised and even rather pleased at how swiftly Weiss moved to protect the both of them. That quickly gave way to aggravation, though, and Blake crossed her arms defiantly. "I'm a Belladonna, if you remember. I _highly_ doubt your father would want anything to _do_ with me that wouldn't fall into the category of 'bad ends'."

"Perhaps you're right, and I don't fancy trying to hide the fact from him. More for the likelihood of failure and reprisal than anything else, though, to be frank." In truth, it was most likely that he'd just try to press on menagerie politically to get concessions. Even that, though, was almost _certainly_ not something Blake would tolerate. And if she resisted what her father decided to do, then she'd become the _target_, not someone to be protected. "Then again, what do you want to do?"

"What _can_ we do?" Ruby asked, using her Semblance to bolt to her bunk and sitting there while petals fluttered. For once, Weiss ignored the childish display, and let Ruby go on. "I heard your dad mention Beacon."

"He wants to sue Beacon for allowing this to happen. Or for not letting him know I was on Weiss' team, and what I was." Blake answered quietly, ears flicking to show Ruby how she'd heard. In case she was _going_ to wonder, that was, though Weiss suspected that Faunus had to explain such frequently enough to just _do_ those things. "And no," she added quietly when Ruby opened her mouth, "he doesn't care if Beacon _knew_ what I was. He calls it negligence in failing to inform him, or failing to vet their student applicants."

"That's dumb…"

"Yeah, it really is." Weiss nodded with a tired sigh, more experienced with her father's foolishness than _either_ of them could possibly understand. And in ways she wasn't about to explain, for that matter. "My father sees an advantage and now he's going to find ways to press it to his benefit. And he will press it now, with or without my consent."

"A true tyrant after all. At least the Fang was right about _that_, if absolutely nothing else..." Blake murmured, strolling over and sitting on Yang's bed comfortably. Reaching up she idly ran a thumb along the back of one of her ears she thought for a moment. Finally, she blinked and looked to Weiss, "You can't try to stop him yourself, right?"

"No." She answered quietly, her voice resigned and weak even to her own ears. "If I try to, he could withhold tuition payments. Or send his quite literal army of highly paid lawyers to force Ozpin to cancel my standing at Beacon. If I resist hard enough, he could have me declared mentally incompetent and _force_ me home to 'recover'."

"He'd do that?"

"He threatened my mother with it, once upon a time. And for all my father's innumerable faults, being a man to threaten emptily is not one of them." Back when the Board had stripped her of any business controlling powers. She could scarcely remember it personally, but Winter had been old enough to remember. "It would be purely temporary, I am sure. A measure meant to get me home and, likely after a few months, one he would reverse."

"Hard to trade his daughter for business rights if she's 'incompetent', right? I imagine that would be most of the purpose there." Blake challenged, digging at her father more than her. The insult was meant, she was sure, to be empty and untrue, and so when Weiss only nodded Blake scowled, "Damn… He's that bad?"

"He is, yes." And so much worse, but now was very much not the time for her to vent about that.

"Then why don't we go to Ozpin?" Ruby asked quietly, blinking when the two older women turned to look at her. Quietly, unsure now that two eyes were on her demanding more information, Ruby stammered on, "I-I mean, if we warn him, he could prepare ahead of time. And Weiss' dad wouldn't know about it, right? So she'd be safe, and Beacon would be ready to defend itself."

"And if we tell Ozpin what to expect from Weiss' dad, he might protect her too." Blake added, giving Weiss a look and then smiling thinly. In that moment, as Blake began to speak, Weiss could see the old terrorist in her. The scheming and underhanded brilliance of the lifestyle coming through, if for a far more peaceful usage. "With Beacon ready, and Ozpin knowing to expect foolishness about you from your father, we could prepare any number of defences. He can't declare you incompetent, for instance, if Beacon runs a _standard psychological evaluation_ on you, now can he?"

"No… No he very well couldn't, I suppose." Beacon had its own army of lawyers, and _decades_ of prestige in the field of Hunters and everything involving them. If they'd already pre-cleared her then any allegations from her father's lawyers would fall on deaf ears at worst, or those that knew otherwise at best. "And if they didn't know who and what you were, they could prepare a defence for _that_ as well. Or even fake evidence to say they did, with you on hand to validate whatever they claim."

"Then we need to do that, and do it now. Before her bastarding father can make any moves at all." Blake spoke sternly and firmly and rose when the other two nodded, even if Weiss was somewhat thrown off balance by her suddenly more colorful language. Flicking her Scroll out the Faunus explained, "I'll message Yang to let her know what we're doing, and what all is going on. But we need to go."

"Right." Turning, Weiss grabbed her bag and slid her Scroll into it. "Ruby are you going to-"

"Try and stop me!" She crowed loudly and suddenly, dropping off of the bed in a theatrical, flamboyant 'T' pose, grinning widely in spite of the circumstances abounding. More serious in tone, but still grinning widely like a mad woman, Ruby added, "Team RWBY always stands together, bestie more than the restie. We got your back no matter what!"

"She's ridiculously flamboyant and loud, but she's right." Blake offered, Scroll open and finger flicking keyes rapidly as she typed her message. "If the White Fang taught me anything good, it was that a team sticks together. And a Schnee and a Belladonna being friends? What more could I have ever hoped for when it comes to equality of the races?"

"Of course, Blake. It's definitely useful for both our sides." Weiss rolled her eyes at Blake's seeming need to make _everything _somehow justified outside of simply wanting to do the thing in question, but didn't see a point in arguing. She was, after all, _correct_. "We should get going."

"We should."

"Yep!" With her two 'subordinates', as weak a claim as that was, ready to go Ruby turned and pointed to the door. In as triumphant and commanding a voice as a fifteen going on sixteen year old young woman could manage to _make_, their team leader ordered imperiously, "Team RWBY, roll out! Operation Weiss Cream is a go! Follow your glorious leader into battle!"

"Oh for the love of the Brothers, Ruby…" Weiss sighed, shaking her head mirthfully as the young woman blasted by and out the door. It was her way of trying to make everyone feel better, Weiss was sure. Giving Blake an amused look, the Schnee shrugged, "I suppose we should follow, before our 'glorious leader' runs into a wall and knocks herself out."

"Yes, we should." Blake's Scroll pinged quietly and she read it quickly, adding a simple following, "Yang will meet us at the elevator. Said to hurry up since she's pissed and there's plenty of walls to punch."

"That… Sounds about right, yeah." Yang had plenty of self control, Weiss knew, but she was still prone to snap at things. A fault that the blonde woman was aware of, though, hence the message. Even if it was no doubt meant _partially_ in jest. "Well, lead the way, Blake."

"Why am I going first?"

"Because I don't want to, and this is all at least _technically_ your fault." Weiss answered genuinely, shrugging when Blake rolled her eyes at the friendly barb. Standing, though, Weiss followed the Faunus through the door and into the hallway.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Well, that's rather problematic, to say the very least." Ozpin answered after around an hour of explanations, including one on why Blake had hid who and what she was. Which earned a sigh and a sip of his warm coffee from the man, and, "I'm very disappointed that you felt the need to hide your heritage though, Miss Belladonna."

"I'm sorry, Sir, I-"

"I'm not disappointed in _you_, young lady. You and your partner can rest easy on the fact that I find nothing lacking in you for your decisions." He assured her, smiling and drumming his fingers on the table when she blinked at his interruption. His eyes, smarter and sharper than the young Faunus remembered seeing at his speeches, slid to her partner in the seat beside her and his smile widened, "You can calm yourself with that information, I hope, Miss Xiao Long."

"Y-Yeah." Yang blinked, surprised that her simple tensing had been so easily read and called out by the man. Folding her arms across her chest and shifting in her seat, the blonde grimaced slightly and then shrugged, "I mean, yeah, sure, Headmaster. I wasn't, like… Gonna do anything, but…"

"I know, Miss Xiao Long. You can rest assured I took no offence, and I understood entirely. So breathe easy." And from the way he said it and the small smile on his face, he hadn't been concerned in the slightest. Which made sense, Blake supposed. He was the Headmaster, so he was probably strong enough to deal with Yang if she snapped and went off. "_All_ of you should breathe easier, in fact. You did well in coming to me, and your behaviors in this and the surrounding matters have made me proud of you all. _Very_ proud of you all, in fact."

"Can we ask… Why?" Ruby tried gently, sat on the far side from where her sister had been sat in the little arrangement of chairs in the man's office. Nervous, Ruby rubbed the sides of her thighs and rushed to add, before the man could even _hope_ to respond, "O-Or, like, are we supposed to already _know_ why? Is this one of those situations?"

"No, Miss Rose, this isn't some test like you've seen in the movies. You can breathe easier on _that_ front as well." The man chuckled at that, to show he meant no disrespect or insult, and took another drink from his mug. Still smiling, he finally started to explain for them, "Miss Schnee and Miss Belladonna have every reason, in the logic of the kind at play here, to have hated each other. You, Miss Schnee, I would have sooner expected to be in my office demanding she be removed from your team entirely. Or leaving back to Atlas when I refused such a demand, that is."

"I would never-"

"I know, Miss Schnee. My previous summation of you was wholly wrong, and for it, for that failing I mean, I _do_ apologise." He smiled, giving Blake herself a look as well. She'd only really shifted a bit in her seat, but he had apparently seen the argument in her face or stature. He didn't comment on it, though, much to her gratitude, and instead went on, "Not only did you _accept_ each other in private, but you did so publicly as well. And when push inevitably came to shove, you came to me to protect each other when protecting your _selves_ could have been so much easier."

"O-Of course, Sir." Weiss' response was predictably canned and anxiety riddled, the girl shifting anxiously in the seat beside her.

"It would have been silly to hold Weiss' last name against her and then ask her not to hold my ears against me." Which, to be fair, Blake _had_ done, at least initially. She'd never claimed to be perfect, though. And now she knew the hypocrisy and mistake for what it had been now that she had some of that wonderful hindsight.

Hindsight was, after all, 20/20.

"Thus my pride in you all." Ozpin answered, nodding brightly and taking yet another drink of his mug. Then, standing and moving to the pot on the little tray against the wall beyond his desk, he went on excitedly while he refilled his mug, "Your preconceptions were challenged by facts you couldn't deny. And so you _engaged_ with them and, like adults, changed your understanding to better suit what you had been through. And now with your minds changed, you came _straight_ to me to deal with problems, rather than hide from them like so many might have."

The praise coming from so high an official was, to be frank, quite the boost to their egos. Enough for the four women, including Ruby who hadn't _really_ done much to be involved but was certainly there too, were sitting straighter and smiling more surely.

"Now then, team." Ozpin finally said, brightly and easily, as he made his way back to his chair and eased into the seat. Smiling, he took a long sip of his drink and looked first to Blake. "First step of my plan is first, then… I need you to get in contact with your parents, Miss Belladonna. I need to have a few words with them about this matter and your friendship with Miss Schnee."

"Sir…?" Her parents? But they weren't involved in this, and she didn't understand why Ozpin would want to involve them.

Those questions and doubts must have shown, though, because Ozpin smiled reassuringly and nodded his head.

"You trusted me to help you resolve this, ladies." He answered somewhat vaguely, interlacing his fingers and giving her a slow, wise nod. "Now trust me with it. I assure you, _nothing_ will go wrong now that you have involved me."

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Yes, Ozpin, that isn't creepy at all. TOTALLY comforting.**_

_**So instead of trying to overtax and pad the word count by having both plotlines happening in tandem, I would swap back and forth. Shorter chapters, to be sure, but more focused, and posted more often. Drop thoughts in Reviews if you don't mind, if people want a different approach I will approach differently.**_

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Argus :**_

**You're fine, just handle what you've got going on! I'm just glad you're enjoying the story.**


	21. The Temple : Part III

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_**Official Supporters:**_

_**Grand Priestess, **_**Luna Haile. **

_**High Priests, **_**Alvelvnor, Gage. **

_**Priests, **_**The Impossible Muffin**_**, **_**Xager the Chaos King.**

_**Adeptus, **_**Private Wilger**

_**Ze Nope Rope, **_**Kaiser Snek, Snekiest Snek**

_**Acolytes, **_**DigiDemonLord**_**, **_**Stonecold, Cheeseberry**

_**AsInitiates,**_ **Greg Gibson, Espa Cole**_****_

_**If you want to be on the Supporter list, PM one of us for details or join our private server for details. Hope you enjoy reading my stories, please leave me a comment to let me know if you did, or where I can improve. Link here, where able to be seen : **__** /2UZncAm**_

_**Second link here, remove spaces and it SHOULD work : D iscord . gg (slash) kfhkfUb**_

_**I have a kofi account now, too, under this name for those interested.**_

_**Beta : **_

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Through the door they found a long hallway, but no more of the industrial sort of steel designs. Now, it was stone brickwork, like a medieval castle's long halls had been spirited from some ancient fortification and implanted here. The ceilings were vaulted, the walls lined with mirroring arches and braziers filled with burning stone of some unknown description. Whatever the little white chunks were, though, it warmed the hallway and kept it well lit where the lack of the implanted lights should have left them in the pitch dark.

Instead, the hallway was pleasantly warm and well lit, and the lights cast the dark, almost black stone in nearly _sparkling_ relief.

"It's kinda beautiful. Like something out of an old fantasy story or something." Nora was the one to voice the thought, but, walking slowly, he heard gruts of affirmation and saw almost all of them nod. To Jaune, she asked, "Did you ever see anything like this while you were traveling?"

"No, never." And for once, he noticed with some pleasure, he had a completely honest answer to offer.

His temple home had been made of only the utilitarian kind like they'd seen before. Not the finer kind they were in now. Why it was different, he couldn't be sure, but the first likely enough to consider assumption was its apparent link to the Jedi. But from what he'd read, they were a more ascetic society, and so while they wouldn't necessarily live in mud huts, they'd not have had any _reason_ to swap to a finer design deeper in.

Moving on, though, before they could fall into silence, he added, "I wish I had, though. Sight like this is once in a lifetime, I bet. Lieutenant?"

"Huh? Oh, right. More or less is, yeah." The man nodded, rifle clutched tight in his hands and clearly anxious about more automated security. Quietly, so he could listen for danger Jaune supposed, he went on, "Most places are wrecked all to hell in the battle and breaching procedures. There was one place, some kinda… Old tower, way on the western side of Mantle, though."

"Was it in good shape?" Or the one that the Lieutenant had mentioned precipitating, at least in part, Atlas' technological ascendancy.

"Nah, nothing like this." The man grunted and shook his head, "Only a couple floors of that, and they were wrecked and buried."

"It is nice, though." Pyrrha murmured, just loudly enough for them to hear but clear in her lack of trying to _hide_ that she was talking. Quietly, she asked Jaune, "Is this of the kinds of temples you… Were told about, growing up?"

"Kind of, yeah." He answered plainly, but he knew her _real question_, hidden under the first. One about where he was from, where he'd grown up, and so added, "Especially back there. That kind is the one I read about more often than any other."

In truth, _any_ temple would be. He'd read of everything from temples like the Grand Jedi Temple of Coruscant, which was so large he could scarcely fathom it, and temples like his old home. Small, ascetic, and with few purposes aside from a few people staying in it to curate it and meditate. From veritable temple cities, then, to what amounted to shrines, but all were referred to as Temples.

Distantly, he wondered why that was. Some sort of facet of the two Orders had to be what drove such a naming convention. Pride, maybe. For the Sith that was an easy road, and he could imagine the Jedi had enough of the same pride buried somewhere deep down inside of them. Maybe not as individuals, but as an Order altogether.

Or maybe that was just Sith bias acting up… A danger of starting with the Sith way and then balancing it as training went on, he knew, _accelerated_ as his process had admittedly been.

"Arc?" His musings were cut short as the lead of his group turned, armored head cocked to the side. Black stepped to the side and jerked his rifle past him and grunting, "Another door, I, uh, I _think_. Think you can… Work your magic again, with your Semblance?"

As the man said, another door blocked passage further in, but this one wasn't made of wrought iron and steel like the first had been. Instead, the wall ended suddenly abruptly in a smooth, flat surface with four marble bricks straight in the center. A thick metal ring circled in the cold brickwork, and the same kind of ancient, Sith lettering crawled around its edges in angry red scrawls. It wasn't painted on, though, the words protruding slightly from the wall.

"Rubies…?" He murmured, giving the Atlesian soldier a look and letting his confusion show on his face. "Why _rubies_? I-It should be metal, or painted on, or Ky- or-or _something_ else. Why rubies, of all the things?"

"I… Don't know?" And from his tone, the Atlesian was just confused that _he_ was being asked about it. Waving a hand around them, he reminded him and his team both that, "We don't usually get them in this kind of shape. Maybe just read the words? Might have a… A clue or something."

It was clear the Atlesian just wanted him to read it so they could move on, but he couldn't blame him. Jaune really wanted to as well, and gently prodded the four of his company aside to get to the door.

"It says 'The way forward in light is seen to be the one most obvious'." He translated, trailing his fingers along the bold letters as he spoke, "'But such light only hides the paths in shadow, which are better by far. In light, clarity. In shadow, discovery. In balance, the way forward may be found'."

"What could that mean, for a puzzle?" Ren asked, joining him in looking at the ornately made ruby lettering. Reaching out, he laid a hand on the white in the middle and blinked. "The stone here moves, Jaune."

"It does?" The young Force user leaned in to see and sure enough when Ren gingerly prodded it, the stone shifted ever so slightly in. Stepping back so the others could see he murmured, loud enough to be heard but quiet enough he was clearly _thinking_, "It's a button…? Is that how the door opens, then? You press the buttons?"

"Call me crazy, and a lot of people do, _but that isn't the point_, but I don't think it's that easy!" Nora pushed in, prodding each stone individually while she explained. "The riddle means this isn't going to be straight forward for us. The same was true for Mister Boop back there."

"Mister Boop…?"

"Hush, Jauney, your queen is talking. And thinking. Don't throw off the queen's groove, 'kay? Kay, thanks." She waved a hand to shush him and their Atlesian friend groaned, looking to the sky for some kind of divine help. None, of course, came, and Jaune felt a pang of sympathy for the man. Nora ignored him, though, instead crossing her arms and tapping a finger against her chin in thought. "The path in the light is obvious, but it hides the better paths in the shadows… Light gives you clarity, because you can see, but…"

"Too much blinds you, keeps you from seeing what's around you clearly." The Atlesian officer offered, pulling a little ball off his waist and showing it to them. "A flashbang. Lotta light and a loud ass bang, and you can't see to maneuver."

"Without light, though, you can't see at all." Pyrrha commented simply, walking to one of the braziers and humming as she watched the fire crackle. Turning to them, she smiled and suggested, "Perhaps if we put some of these braziers out something will happen?"

"Like what, exactly?" The Atlesian asked, putting away his grenade and drawing out his water flask. In spite of his skepticism he pitched it to the Mistralian and she nodded her thanks. "Askin' since you're gonna use my water for your experiment."

"I… Don't actually know, really." The Mistralian shrugged, the water in her hand sloshing noisily as she checked how much there was in it. To make sure she could do what she was hoping, he assumed. Satisfied, the girl smiled thinly and offered a weak, unsure, "It does seem a clever answer to the riddle, though. And explains the presence of the braziers rather than the conventional lights from before."

"Worth a shot, I guess." And if worst came to worse, they _could_ just smash through the door. Assuming that dimming the lights prevented them going forward, that was. "All right," he nodded, "let's do this, then."

Together with Nora and Black, they spread out, pouring just enough water onto the strange stones to smother the fire. To their surprise, the stones didn't need much in the way of water to extinguish, the entire brazier's worth sputtering and dying with naught but a splash of the life giving liquid. Hissing, their fires died, leaving behind cold, almost uniformly round silver rocks the size of their fists that were warm to the touch even minutes after their fires had been extinguished. As though the fires were _within_ the stones, rather than being used as fuel to simply burn.

Later, he decided, he'd take some of the rocks with him to look into later. He couldn't afford to neglect such an obvious, unique link to his adoptive people's past. And, potentially, the path to power he so desperately needed if he wanted to save his partner. And be allowed to ascend to a Lord, though he hadn't even _thought_ about that aspect in what felt like months. Not since his vision, at least…

"Lien for your thoughts?" Pyrrha murmured as she worked and he followed her, watching her absently. She gave him a small smile of concern and friendly affection and he returned it, even as she snidely asked, "Or are you thinking about precisely what I suspect you are? Even though you know we ought not dwell on it."

"Kind of, but not really." Her confusion at his answer was evident, as was the spike of dislike he sensed from her. Heading _that_ off while he could, he elaborated as fast as he was able, safely far enough that he knew he wouldn't be heard, "The temple here, it's bigger than mine was. Like, a _lot_ bigger, I think."

"I would wager so, yes. Yours always sounded more akin to a shrine, or a small hermitage perhaps, than a temple of any real power." He'd described his old home well enough for her to get the gist and see the difference, apparently. She was smart like that, though, able to feel her way through concepts even when they should have been entirely foreign to her. "Regardless, you think here is a place to find some power for us to use?"

"Maybe." He shrugged, unsure of the specifics but rattling on regardless, "Even just some information would be helpful. Leads to other temples, something to trade to Atlas for whatever I can get for it. Maybe backup, if things go bad, to protect you."

"Us." She corrected him, giving him a look with her eyes narrowed and lips pursed. "To protect _us_, Jaune. Not just me."

"Of course, yeah, that's what I meant. You know that." It wasn't, of course. She was the one in danger, not him. Thus _she_ needed protecting, but he knew she'd never let her team risk itself in her stead. Even if _she_ was fated and they were not. "Anyway, I'm hoping we can find some kind of way to-"

"Jaaaaune!" Nora called as she ran to him, the partner duo having wandered far and away from the new door. Enough they could almost see the _old_ door that had let them in, back the way the'd come. Coming stuttering to a stop, the young explosives enthusiast pointed back towards the _new_ door and said, "The door is doing something! Lighting up and stuff. Lieutenant Black said you should come and see it, before anyone touches it and we, like, get blown up or… You know, something else fun."

"I would hardly call exploding _fun_…"

"Hey, if Ruby got to do it, I wanna do it at _least_ once." The woman waved off Pyrrha's amused, good-natured sigh and grabbed Jaune by the arm. Tugging him back towards the door, she rattled of, "Come on now, brave knight of the kingdom! Your Queen awaits!"

"How are you waiting if you're dragging me there?"

"I meant that I await you doing the thing!" She pouted and punched his arm with her free hand, leaving him to wince while she put on her 'I did nothing, Ren' face and dragged them there.

When they got there, the door was _definitely_ doing something. Of the bricks in the center, one was glowing, while several of the words ringing it were glowing dim and red as well. Like they were backlit by something else. For their benefit, he read, chuckling as he did, "The glowing says 'The way forward may be found in balance' and the lit up stone is one that means 'entry'."

"So what do we…?"

"I got an idea. Jaune, show me the words in order." Nora commented quietly, stepping forward and reading out the words as he pointed them out and she pressed them. "'The way forward may be found in balance' and 'entry."

"Good work, Nora." Jaune complimented as the old stone door groaned, the hidden contraptions behind it pulling it back and rolling it aside. She was a lot smarter than most people gave her credit for, he knew, and this was just another show of it. Ignoring it, though, he drew his saber, though he kept its blade silent after their experience with 'Mister Boop' as he was apparently now called, and ordered, "Everyone be ready. You don't know what the _next_ test will be, and we don't want to be caught off guard."

The next room was a mirror in shape and size to the first, albeit made of the farmer and finer black brickwork. Overhead, massive crystals speckled the ceiling and glowed brightly, as though they'd somehow captured the sunlight outside and implanted it into warm, yellow crystals. Paired with the wrought iron braziers from the hallway that ringed the room, it was bright enough to see more than easily, and warm as well.

"Luminous crystals." The Atlesian said quietly, looking around the otherwise empty, if pretty, room. In that same quiet, helpful but clearly anxious and distracted for it, voice he went on, "That's what the Division cals them, at least. They glow nearly constantly, though we don't know why. Though tests have noted they glow brighter with people nearby than when being handled by drones."

It was the Force, he knew, though he couldn't properly explain that. The crystals reacted to more intense focuses of the Force, such as people, and glowed in response to them. He could _feel_ them harmonizing with him and glowing brighter and more warmly, and suddenly wondered if _that_ was why the round stones felt warm. Something to test later, he decided, turning his attention back to the room around them.

Or rather, his attention was pulled back, as Nora called, "Found a button thingamawhatsit!"

"Coming!" He called in answer, putting aside what _precisely_ 'thingamawhatsit' was meant to even _try_ and convey.

What Nora had found, it turned out, was indeed a button of some kind. Only one that was placed in the exact center of the room, embedded into the floor rather than on a wall, and painted a somehow _darker_ black. Emblazoned in bright crimson there was a sort of broken up hexagon. An image he recognized just as easily as he had on the first door, where Mister Boop had stood guard.

"The Sith… But..." He only barely murmured, before he could catch himself. Around the edged were more ruby based script lines and, louder so everyone could easily hear, he read it out, "'In victory, one shows strength and earns freedom. Show your strength, earn your freedom, and gain power with it. Submit willingly and step onto the path of power.'."

"So, step on the platform and... Then something will attack us?" Ren posed, standing in a circle around it along with the rest of them.

"Yeah, that… Sounds about right, yeah." Jaune sighed, standing and looking at the lightsaber in his hand. With a tired sigh, he stood and straightened, flicking his saber out and igniting one of the ends. Over its warm, familiar hiss, he murmured, "I guess we should just get it over with, right?"

"Quite right." Pyrrha chuckled at the melodrama, though, knowing he was playing it up. Cocking a hip, she rested her hand on it and asked, "So, what's the plan then, o' fearless leader mine?"

"Hm… Just give me a second to think." Experimentally, he put a foot on the platform and pushed down as hard as he could. So _weight_ wasn't what mattered, then, it seemed. Which set his plan in stone, ironically given their surroundings. "Circle up around the button. I'll activate it with my Semblance, it needs it like the doors did, and we don't know where whatever comes will come from, or what it will be."

Four different variants of 'yes' echoed around him as the foursome filed out around him in a wide, loose circle. There they stopped and the sound of them preparing themselves echoed around him. Checking ammunition in magazines, clips or cylinders, tugging their armor to check its integrity, and so on. He himself matched them, checking the straps and fittings of his light armor and pulling his hood taught around his head.

"Everyone ready?" He asked loudly, spinning his saber beside him as he did. "Once this starts, I don't think it's over 'til we win. Or we _don't_."

"Oh I did not sign up for this crazy ancient cult stuff…" Regardless, the Atlesian pulled a bolt on the side of his rifle and nodded. "Ready to tangle with whatever you are, Huntsman. Let's all try not to die."

"Pffft, we can't die." Nora laughed, waving her hand and extending Magnhild, letting it lay across her shoulders as she often did. When she felt eyes on her she laughed, shrugged, and explained simply that, "I can't die until I get to bopo Mister Boop. I forgot too because you all dragged me off! So dying is banned."

"I don't think you can ban _dying_, Nora…"

"Just did, though, Renny. It was a royal proclamation and you can't undo a royal proclamation." She shrugged then and smiled innocently, though the giant hammer across her shoulders _somewhat_ undermined the innocence she was going for. "I don't make the rules, sorry, guys. I just enforce them."

"As a queen don't you _literally_ make the rules?"

"Your sedition will not be soon forgotten, Miss Nikos. I advise you watch your tone." The girl declared imperiously in her best impersonation of the headmistress, even going so far as to push an invisible pair of glasses up her nose to sell it. In a far more _Nora_ display, the girl swung her hammer around to heft in her hands, "I wanna smack something, Jauney! Push the big fun button!"

Saving himself the time of trying to debate calling an ancient, at least semi-sacred switch in a temple meant to test people, the young man simply rolled his eyes and reached down with a hand. Fingers splayed, he gave it a firm _push_. With a metal and stone laden groan, the switch depressed under his power. For a long moment, nothing happened at all.

Then, they all flinched as they began to _descend_, the entire floor lowering steadily.

The floor now was shaped largely like a gear, with the braziers set on the protrusions of it and glowing overhead. Along the walls were now metal slats the size of men and just as long, layered like amor around the periphery of the room. It was like the front of a garage, in a way, except stretched around the round edges of the room. And like a garage, a heavy groan and squeal of metal gears echoed as one of the sides began to lift. It only rose a third of the way before grinding to a halt, only as high as they were tall, but why it did that didn't take long to discover.

What emerged was a rank of a dozen human shaped machines, with blocky, heavy silver armor and blaster rifles in hand. In unison, they marched three steps into the open and stopped. Behind them, another dozen stepped into the light and paused just behind them.

"Oh shit…" Black murmured, stepping back quickly and half-raising his own rifle towards them. Louder, he called out the warning, "Sentinel Droids! Brothers damn- Don't get hit by their guns. They burn you right through your Aura."

Blasters worked like lightsabers, he knew, super-heating the air directly around them and their impact zones. Aura could protect against extreme temperatures, he knew, but not to _those_ ranges. They wouldn't outright bypass it, but a single hit could _ruin_ a person's Aura levels.

"Spread out and keep moving! Circle around and close in on them, I'll distract them!" He ordered, surging forward with a thunderous _crack_ of the Force augmenting him.

His leap ended halfway to the droids and coincided with them all whirring to activity, rifles snapping up to seek out targets. As the loud, punchy _thum_ of the blasters began to fill the air and swamp his nose with the smell of burnt ozone, he grit his teeth. Reaching out with the force, he _yanked_ two towards him and spun on his heel, igniting the other end of his saber and catching them across their midriffs.

Unlike Mister Boop, his saber cut them as easily as anything else, and the two tumbled by lifelessly a moment later, sparking but limp completely. When his spin finished, he let the Force guide his saber and sent a third's blaster bolts back at it. The shots smote it on the leg and then, when it sagged to a knee, perforated its head. As it tumbled, he felt the attentions of three more turn to him. From there began a mix between dancing and falling, jumping, stepping, and sometimes scrabbling on one hand while he desperately deflected rounds off his saber. Most missed entirely, sizzling into the walls beyond them, but some managed to score hits and two more droids fell that way.

Then his team was among their loose ranks, having swept around as ordered while he had their focus. In melee, the droids fared far worse, quickly crumpling under heavy hammer blows and Pyrrha's spear or Semblance. More than one sagged to the ground, active but hamstrung by the young dual wielder, too, but he'd have been lying if he said Nora didn't score most of the kills.

She _had_ said she wanted to smash something, after all, so it only made sense.

No sooner had the last droid fallen, though, did he hear another of the garage fronts grind open. A second matched it, and this time, _three_ ranks emerged with their rifles held across their chests. Sheathing his saber and not eager in the _slightest _to have to fight so many of them at once, he turned and stretched out with his hands and his mind.

Listlessly, the bodies began to rise, gathering in the air as bolts began to rain down around him. One sizzled by his ribs and he hissed in pain as the skin reddened under his armor, but he would never let that stop him. Instead he turned, letting it fuel his power and _hurling_ the droids across the room. Most missed, falling short, sailing over or simply clattering in the steadily spreading formation of droids, but just as many hit. All told, six droids were crushed by their fellows, before a flurry of pink grenades sailed high overhead and landed among them in bright explosions that tore them asunder and hurled them aside.

"Can you make us some cover?" Pyrrha asked, kneeling beside him with her shield before her, a massive scorch mark across its surface but the structure still in place. In her hands she held her rifle, snapping off shots where she could but unwilling to rush in among the grenades to close with them. "We could use it to defend against them."

"Sure." He wasn't sure _exactly_ how much she thought he could do with just the droids around them, but he tried regardless.

Using the droid bodies, he made piles of ruined metal. Lopsided, uneven, sparking and in some cases _moving_ where droids hadn't fully deactivated, it was farm from perfect. But that didn't stop _any_ of his team from rushing to the three mounds, kneeling behind it to send their answering fire into the droid ranks. Like that they were able to safely, relatively speaking considering his still sore side, repel the droid attack.

Then, though, another of the doors groaned open. And this one opened all the way, with almost fifteen feet of open air looking in on blackness.

From it a new droid marched, and only one of them. This one was massive, at least twelve feet tall and a fourth of that wide, with shining silver armor and a _massive_ cannon for one arm. In the other was a long and, for its build, thin blade made of some kind of blue steel he couldn't a way, it reminded him of Weiss' sword, albeit _this_ one was a thick as she herself was.

Its head, chest and shoulders wee smooth tear drops, with four long and almost spider-like limbs covered in the blocky, heavy armor the Sentinels wore, with clawed feet that crushed the stone under it. Two small, red eyes glowed in the long black stripe that split its head, and when they landed on him Jaune felt earnestly afraid. The added limbs and smoothly armored, almost exoskeletal aesthetic gave it an insectoid feel, even as it stood tall and straight.

Then, with a heavy _whirr_ of anger, it surged forward towards them and they scattered.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

**Your opinions on the separation of chapter sets are acknowledged. Thanks for sharing! Will be a few chapters before any more moving happens on the RWBY side, though. I only wanted to get the 'day of the Temple Mission' events set up, out of the way, and sorted.**

**Also, the final Reviewer Response has some details to answer people's impatience over why I include the RWBY points of view. No major spoilers, of course, but a point of intersection that may bare pointing out.**

**Also also, yes, if you look up 'Sith Empire Sentinel Droid' that is EXACTLY what they are going up against first. I did, however, lose my link on the different versions, their blaster color, and those sort of very minor things. So sorry. The second droid type shown here was inspired by Cocytus, of the Overlord anime.**

**Hope you enjoyed~!**

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Hirshja :**_

**I mean he knows… Some of that?**

_**Edward 4555 :**_

**You're right! It's racial profiling and a girl who knows that beating the racist will make someone else a target. So she lets him hit her, like she does any other person when a Grimm threatens. Jaune disagreed with that approach or didn't know it.**

_**Chris Adair :**_

**Nah. He's more 'Scare them into submission or stab them'. At least at the moment.**

_**Yavin Yams :**_

***burning notes while Betas scream in the background. one of them is Wilhelm for some reason* W-What? No! Never. He he… Uh… Yeah.**

_**Zenith Tempest :**_

**All will be revealed, my friend, I promise. For now I will elucidate the direct through line that won't violate much story integrity or ruin any reveals… **

**Ozpin is interested in the Silver Eyes, thus Ruby's presence. He's also interested in Pyrrha's potential, thus the higher caliber mission than they should strictly be on. BOTH now have a reason to have DIRECT interactions with Ozpin and Ironwood, allowing the 'Cabal' so to say to have more influence directly on them.**


	22. The Temple : Part IV : Finale

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Official Supporters:**_

_**Grand Priestess, **_**Luna Haile. **

_**High Priests, **_**Alvelvnor, Gage. **

_**Priests, **_**The Impossible Muffin**_**, **_**Xager the Chaos King.**

_**Adeptus, **_**Private Wilger**

_**Ze Nope Rope, **_**Kaiser Snek, Snekiest Snek**

_**Acolytes, **_**DigiDemonLord**_**, **_**Stonecold, Cheeseberry**

_**AsInitiates,**_ **Greg Gibson, Espa Cole**_****_

_**If you want to be on the Supporter list, PM one of us for details or join our private server for details. Hope you enjoy reading my stories, please leave me a comment to let me know if you did, or where I can improve. Link here, where able to be seen : **__** /2UZncAm**_

_**Second link here, remove spaces and it SHOULD work : D iscord . gg (slash) kfhkfUb**_

_**I have a kofi account now, too, under this name for those interested.**_

_**Beta : **_

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

The massive silver blade whistled through the air as the machine reached him and cut across itself, sweeping from right to left and hurling their little mounds of cover through the air as it went. The three fighting leapt back and way, scattered in a loose, curved line in front of the machine. Ren was far too busy protecting Black to help them, dragging the man along on the other side of the room now with his body between the robot and the man as a living, if slightly more resilient and willing, shield.

So even if Jaune wasn't complaining, that put him _very much_ out of the fight.

"Pyrrha left, Nora you go right. Hard, fast, aim for the knees and shoulders to try and break the limbs off." He ordered quickly while he had the time, the girls edging away at his orders while the machine rose, always facing him more than either of them. Each of them shouted their consent and he smiled, watching it raise its blaster cannon and then adding, "He seems to like me, so I'll distract him!"

"If I can touch it, my Semblance will let me pull plating off." Pyrrha offered helpfully, shifting her sword to its spear form for leverage and raising her shield. "Nora, your smoke might make it hard for it to see, too."

"Good idea!" He answered, "But it might have thermals."

"Why are we shouting our plans!?" The hammer wielder called in question, "It can hear us, you guys! I feel like that's a _bad _thing to do, you know?"

With a deafening screech of metal and stone protesting under metal, the machine launched towards him, hunks of the floor hurtling through the air behind it. Swearing, he leapt back to dodge first its sword and then the claws of a foreleg. Both embedded themselves in the old stone of the floor as it landed and turned at the waist, snapping a shot from its heavy cannon off as Nora raced to help him and using the blade for an anchor to steady itself. With a squeak of surprise and protest, the young Valkyrie stumbled to the side, saved only because it hadn't had time to aim its snap-shot.

Spinning his saber he silenced on end and let his hand slide along the weapon's haft nearly to the other, muted head, to extend his reach. Then he lunged in, raising his other hand and _wrenching_ the machine's cannon-arm up and back, lashing out at one of its knees and aiming to cripple it. As he'd expected, the saber sparked and glanced off the shining armor, the recoil forcing him back a step as the weapon bucked in his hand.

But the attack had the desired effect, drawing the machine's insectoid head back to him and away from his flanking teammates.

With another screech of metal on stone, the machine wrenched its sword to the side, buffeting him with rocks and iron when he leapt back again to evade the attack. This time, it didn't follow him, instead snapping its cannon up even before he'd landed. With a shouted swear, he reached out with a hand for Pyrrha, running towards its legs as fast as she could go and yanking on her as hard as he dared. She stumbled with wide eyes at the sudden, surprising feeling pulling her to the side, but she had the advantage of being both heavier in her armor, and on the ground.

So instead of pulling _her_ towards _him_, he pulled himself _to_ her, flying through the air and slamming back first into her. She recovered quickly enough, fist in the small of his back pushing him up and a murmured, "I'm sorry," for the forcefulness of it.

"Yeah, sure." He nodded and she took off, running at an angle away from him while the machine turned towards him.

Well, turned its torso around to face him, the legs designed to work both ways, but the effect was the same. That is to say, he had to leap to the side and roll across the ground to avoid being incinerated. The machine warbled angrily at his evasion and rounded on him again, cannon leveling as it trundled towards him, firing another blast as it did. This time he didn't dodge, instead pulling the scattered, broken droids around him up and hurling them into the line of fire. Most melted under the heat, but the bolt exploded halfway to him instead of _on_ him, showing him in sparks and broken metal that flecked off his armor, cutting along his arms and legs before his Aura could snap back up. The wounds were shallow at worst, though, so he ignored them wholly.

Though he knew that his team would give him hell for it until he got it tended to properly.

"_And besides, it worked."_ He thought as the machine loped through the black smoke, cannon and sword cutting across it to clear its sight lines.

"Mother honking _boop_!" Nora cried as she soared high behind it and came down, Magnhild trailing pink smoke as she did. The hammer slammed home on its cannon-side shoulder and the machine staggered under the young woman's monumental strength. It straightened, though, and its head turned ever so slightly to regard her, and Nora chuckled, "Sorry?"

In that same moment, electricity _crackled_ all along its body and into her, before it spun its torse rapidly to hurl her off.

"Nora, no!" Pyrrha cried out as she landed, rolling across the ground and sparking electricity as she went. The girl landed with her hammer under her and pushed herself up, spasming as she did, but Pyrrha was already gone, shouting back, "Jaune, back me up, you'll know it when you see it!"

Seeing the charging Mistralian, the machine rounded on her, cannon swinging around as she came. But Jaune lashed out, using the Force to once again wrench the gun up and away, the blaster bolt punching into the roof high overhead and showering the arena in rubble as Pyrrha spun on her heel and chucked her shield towards it as hard as she could. The little bronze disk lodged in its cannon arm's shoulder, where a Human's armpit would have been, jamming it with its cannon raised skyward.

Its sword was free though, and whistled down towards her in a reminder. So close, she couldn't dodge in time and instead turned and leapt, holding her spear in front of her and letting it bat her away with a metallic _crack_ of metal meeting metal. The woman hit the ground and rolled, trundling past Nora as she rose and raised her hammer, crackling.

And cackling, too, oddly enough.

The machine screeched its protest as it trundled toward him, sword held out to one side and cannon arm straining to get the shield out of the way. As it reached him he rolled forward to dodge the blade and turned, meaning to use the Force to push it away.

Instead, he saw the inside of a clawed foot as it closed around him and then hurled him up, into the air. Its blade met the young Force warrior, batting him down and into the ground, Aura sparking and ribs protesting. He managed to keep hold of his saber, as much good as _that_ did him with the armor deflecting its now quiet blade so readily, but he lost his breath and lay there trying to catch it again. And trying to get his Aura back up, the soul generated barrier sparking and failing all along his body.

The machine's sword came up again, intending to slam down onto him and crush him against the ground Aura or no. With a groan he rolled over and gave up on his Aura, too winded and injured to use it if he even had any left, he summoned the Force to him instead. When he heard the sword descend, he rolled over again and held his hands up, intent on holding the blade still.

Instead, all he saw were Nora's thighs and back, the woman kneeling over him with her arms around the sword's end, holding it above him shakily. Grinning and forcing herself to rise so he'd have more space, she grunted, "Hey, fearless leader. How ya doin'?"

"Good…?"

"Kay, can you move now?" She smiled, "Me and P-Money are gonna smash us a robot."

He wasted no time doing just that, scrambling away in spite of his throbbing, bruised leg to give her the space she needed. Standing, he found Pyrrha, her eyes closed and sweat beading on her forehead, hands empty but trembling and stretched out towards the robot. With him clear, the two Mistralians grunted their effort almost in unison, the hammer wielder stepping to the side and carrying the sword with her, into its guard and between its legs.

"Jaune, hold its cannon so it can't compensate." Pyrrha grunted, the machine staggering back as the two women forced its own weapon under it, but were unable to overpower it.

He nodded and did just that, focusing and locking his hold around its shoulder to hold it still, focusing all his strength on it. Torso locked and unable to step back, when Nora stepped into its guard the metal of the machine groaned, resisting. Another step and it was bowed over, the three of them sweating and trembling as they held it. Another step and it chittered angrily, arm working back and forth and trying desperately to get free, knowing what they wanted. On the last step, the machine's sword arm wrenched to the side and the steel of it snapped, its leg lashing out and launching the girl back along with the half of its sword that it had broken off. Screeching, it tried to follow her, but he held it still with his grip on its shoulder while Pyrrha sagged beside him and sucked in air.

"Kicking people is _rude_!" Nora screamed as the broken half of the sword cut through the air and slammed into its chest, ripping through the metal and embedding deep in the machine's core. Nora followed it, hammer in hand and electricity sparking along her while she laughed maniacally, "You're a bad robot! Mister Boop would be disappointed in you!"

To punctuate her words, she brought her hammer down on the broken end of the weapon protruding from its chest. The sword punched in and through like a nail, falling out the other side and clanging against the ground. The machine stuttered for a long moment, a man sized hole in its chest sparking and leaking oil, like a gutted man would blood. It staggered forward a step and shook, Pyrrha's shield _finally_ falling loose and clattering away as its cannon swiveled towards him and wobbled unsurely.

Then its weapon sagged beside it like a weight and dragged it down, onto its side and with its legs twitching beside it. Then they went still and limp, laid across the ground like an animal's legs while the rest of the machine shuddered its last and then lay still. Tired, bruised and adrenaline running, they regrouped around the dead machine and collected their breaths.

"Nora, how did you…?"

"Her Semblance lets her take in electricity and use it like a battery." Ren explained, far less fatigued than the rest of them for obvious reasons. "If she gets a good shock, its like… Like injecting adrenaline right into your veins. Or giving her coffee."

"How did you find out-"

"Climbed a thing, got struck by lightning, didn't die." She shrugged and waved it off, poking the robots armored chest with the head of her hammer. "It was… Yeah. A _crazy_ day. Ren made me cinnamon pancakes to celebrate."

"She pretended she was dying and made them her last request." He corrected, smiling fondly regardless. "But they were pretty tasty."

"...Hunters are insane… Absolutely insane..." The Atlesian soldier moaned, head in his hands. Shaking it, he turned to look at Jaune and asked, clearly exhausted beyond what should be normal. "Can we _please_ leave now? I want to see what's through that door after all _that_ effort and _before_ something else ridiculous comes out to try and kill us!"

"Yeah, let's get out of here, guys." And preferably before anything else large, shiny and mechanical showed up to give them problems.

Seemingly now that the fighting was over, the Temple had decided that they were allowed to move on, and the floor groaned in response. With a sound of scraping stone, metal being crushed where droids had fallen under the lips of the openrf droid compartments. At the top, as it shuddered to a shaky stop, the two doors slid open with loud, groaning sounds. _Very_ brief confusion passed for a moment as they tried to figure out which way they'd come from.

Luckily, _one_ side had several of the braziers unlit, so they reasoned that the _other_ had to be the way forward.

The next hallway was finer, like the brazier puzzle had been, and led to yet another wide, circular door. This one was unornamented, but to either side hung the banners of the Sith Empire and the Jedi Order. Beside them were statues, one heavily armored and with his hood pulled taut, a saber made of rubies extending from a staff beside him. The other was lighter armored and wore a robe, his own saber held in his hand at his side, sapphire blade gleaming in the fire light.

Or, well, the 'fire light' that the odd pale stones cast.

"It says 'Your tests passed, enter the lexiconary at your leisure. Take only as much knowledge as you might leave in turn.'." He read, tracing out the simpler ruby etchings, arrayed like words on line paper might be. Beside them was a button that, with a shrug, and a look to his team that earned _another_ shrug he pressed.

With a now familiar groan, the stone door slid back and to the side, admitting them into what looked like his library from home. Except that it was much larger, at least four or five times as long and wide, and twice its height. Tall enough that a second floor had been built, ringing the library and crossed by long walkways, with ladders for access up and down and, in the back beside another door, a small elevator. Shelves full of scrolls, artifacts like sabers and broken armor sections, and holocron boxes emblazoned with both order's symbols.

"This is the biggest artifact deposit I've ever seen…" He heard Black murmur as they spread out into the library, looking at the various items in quiet awe. To no one in particular, he murmured, "Do you have any idea what this will do to our technology in the next twenty or so years…?"

"Advance it considerably, I would wager!" A synthetic voice chimed cheerily, the five of them snapping around the soldier defensively in reaction. Standing on a high balcony was a droid, shaped almost identically to Instructor but painted a sterling silver, who stood with his hands clasped behind his waist. Chuckling, the machine waved their fear off and assured them all, "You need not be afraid! I am Curator, a droid designated to the care, repair and maintenance of this facility and its library. The greatest repository on this planet, I feel no small amount of pride in saying!"

"Are we allowed to access the scrolls and holocrons?" He asked, surprised but more quickly recovering since he'd already met droids like these. Admittedly, of course, that had been only _one droid_, but that still meant he was more ready to adapt to it than others might be.

"Oh yes!" The machine nodded, "You may study whatever you desire in here. You may _not_, however, take anything out. Nor may you study anything without information, mundane or not, to add to the lexiconary. And none but those gifted with the Force may enter the other door. The table beside you is where you may leave your own artifacts, written information, or what have you once you have completed your studies."

The machine turned to leave nut Jaune stopped him, calling out, "What's through the other door?"

"A gift." The machine answered quietly, "For a master and an apprentice to find together." It turned to look at him then, appraising him, and chittered a laugh, "A shame that there is only one of you, hm? You can't get in."

With that, the machine left them and the group relaxed. To either side of the door were desks and chairs, lined against the wall, as well as low coffee tables set back from them and mats to sit on. Fruit, bread and little brown bars had been stacked on plates there for them to eat, as well as bandages for them to wrap their wounds. His injured ribs creaked angrily at noticing those and he grunted, pressing a hand to his side with a grimace.

"Come on, he seems to have prepared for our getting here." Pyrrha murmured, tugging him towards the table while the group slowly wandered off. He let her push him into a seat while the others began looking at broken armor and weapons, or unfurling scrolls they couldn't read and putting them back with frustrated sighs.

"They need my help." He was the only one who could easily read Sith, after all.

"You need to get your ribs looked at, eat something, and get your arm wrapped up before you pull the wound and bleed out." She chided him in response, grabbing his right arm and turning it over to point at a long red gash that stretched from his wrist to his elbow. He made to protest and she glared at him until he sighed and relaxed, earning a small smile and a, "Thank you. Now get your armor and robes off so I can bind your ribs."

He did as she asked, undoing the fastenings of his light chest piece and dropping it on the table. While she grabbed the bandages, he shrugged off his robe and turned in his seat, groaning when she joined him and pressed a hand against his side, prodding each of his ribs from top to bottom to find the injured ones, judging from his winces when she pressed against the sensitive area.

"Your whole right side is injured, Jaune." She sighed, agitated but not agitated at _him_. Gently, she laid a finger against a long line along his shoulder blade and murmured, aghast, "And Gods, these scars… This is from your training, I presume?"

"Why would you assume that?" He asked, remembering the scar well. She leaned forward and gave him a look caught somewhere between 'done with this' and 'do you think I'm dumb' and he chuckled, "Yeah. It was an accident when I was learning how to use my glaive, actually. My dad got me with his training sword on accident."

"And the others?"

"A mix of my dad's training and…" And Instructor's, especially the small blaster burns along his chest and stomach. He couldn't just say that, though, with his team so close and them not yet in the loop. Not to mention Lieutenant Black, of course. "Most of them were accidents, Pyr."

"Most?" She asked, gently reaching around him and feeding the bandages around his chest gently while they talked. Her breath on his shoulder, she added quietly, "There are so many scars, Jaune. I've seen veteran Huntsmen with scars like these."

"My training was rough, sometimes, Pyr. _Very_ rough." Inflicting pain was a common training measure to get a young Force warrior attuning to the Dark Side for obvious reasons. Anger and pain were the easiest sources of passion to feed that aspect of the Force, after all. Smiling when she leaned over his shoulder to feed the bandages around him more, he assured her, "It's fine, Pyr. Old wounds and all that."

"I suppose…" He sensed her disquiet, though, and she grimaced as her face receded back away from his. Tugging and tying the bandages rougher than strictly necessary, earning a grunt and an amused smile, she sighed and went on. "Well in the end, I can do nothing for it. Hand me the disinfectant and turn round?"

"Sure." He nodded, grabbing the little canister off the table and turning to hand it to her. She took it from him, tossed her ponytail over a shoulder and knelt in front of him, one hand taking his arm and laying it across her lap.

"Your _Semblance_ gets you hurt a lot, you know." She murmured, head bent over his wound while she gently plucked loose fibers from his robe out of the gash. He spared him a look, eyes hard, and added a short, hard, "I don't like that aspect of it much at all, if anyone were to ask."

"I know, Pyr." He didn't like it either, of course, but after so long he was more resigned to it than her. He smiled, though, while she started twining the sterile white wrappings around his arm. "I'm getting better, though. And at least Nurse Pyrrha is here to get me all wrapped up after I get hurt."

"I-I suppose you are quite right, Jaune." She flushed at his words and hid her face in her work, wrapping his arm up faster. Once it was finished, with a little bow on the side of his wrist no less, she stood and dusted her knees off, avoiding his eyes. "Your wounds are dressed as well as I'm able to, Jaune. You'll get them looked at in Beacon."

"I will?"

"Yes, you _very much_ will, Jaune Arc." Now she looked at him, eyes narrowed and a hip cocked for her to rest a fist on, standing close enough that she towered over him. "If I must, I _will_ drag to to Miss Tsune myself, Jaune. And I will make certain to convey to her that you seem to have developed a _cough_ as well."

"You fiend…" That would let her _test_ him, he knew, and for all his Sith training he wasn't wont to experience Tsune digging for answers.

"Indeed, and so you will be getting your ribs checked out when we get home." He nodded and she smiled, eyes softening as she offered him a hand up. He took it and let her pull him up by his unbandaged arm, turning to get redressed while she talked. "This place is likely to hold a lot of answers for us, no?"

"It is." Assuming they could find the right things, and that he could get to them on his own. "Though I'm not exactly happy that door is sealed…"

"A master and apprentice are needed to open the door together." Pyrrha parroted knowingly, taking an orange off the table for each of them, pitching one to him and plopping into the seat he'd just vacated with a sigh. Watching the others mill about further in the room, knowing as surely as he did that they were too distracted to be paying attention to them and too far away to hear well enough if they were, "That means we need two people that can do what you can to get into it."

"Yeah, probably." There was probably some sort of dual engagement lock or something like that, like hand print scanners that had to be pressed at the same time. "I'd like to get in there, if we could."

"What do you think is in there?"

"Weapons, armor, special information. I don't know for sure. _Can't_ know for sure, really, I guess." Something unique and useful, to be sure, but something they couldn't hope to get to. And so, something that was wholly irrelevant and not much worth thinking about. "For now, let's focus on what we have, and what we can trade in for what's in here."

"Hey, Arc!" Black called as the rest of their group began to regroup at the table they'd used to treat him, Nora hopping on a couple of the mats and stealing some of the sweet smelling bread to gnaw on.

"Yes?" He asked when the man reached him, "What's up?"

"We're getting out of here, for now." He answered, gesturing at the scrolls around them. "You're the only one with a chance of reading these and we have next to nothing to turn in for them. I'd like to ask for you to come with us when we return, whenever _that_ happens, so we can start digging through what's here."

"What will you bring to trade?" Ren asked quietly, joining his partner at the table and grabbing a loaf for himself.

"Atlesian clerical records to start, then historical biographies, and the like. At least, those are the ideas that I have right now, I don't know what the brass up top will decide." The soldier answered with a noncommittal shrug, gesturing at the records around them. "Regardless _this_ is all useless to us without you and stuff to trade."

The man had a point and, after some food and a few minutes of rest, they turned to leave. For now at least. He was certain that, sooner or later, they would be back. And he _would_ find out what was locked behind that door. One way or another, and he knew of at least _one_ route to get in… But how was he meant to find another Force user on Remnant?

And would he be the master, or the apprentice?

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Sky Wolf 99 :**_

**I keep a standard rotation, that rarely changes aside from holidays or new stories. Follow me for a month and you'll have it felt out pretty well. My supporters enable me to stay nice and regular with updates and other projects both.**

_**Argus 456 :**_

**Yeah, I was testing the model for future usage. For now, it will only be JNPR scenes until the Temple is finished, as The Temple all occurs in one day. Once back at Beacon, though, the back and forth will be a bit more of a thing. Mainly because of how the next arc is planned out. **

**Also yes, Nora stole the spotlight. Had a spot of fun with her, I did.**

**Also also, yeah, no, the fight was over the top for a challenge. But that, to me, is a thing with Sith. Being over the top.**

_**XWFY :**_

**Oh, it will be overpowered if/when that happens. **

_**Yavin Yams :**_

**I like your name. XD**

**But while I won't say what the prize IS, I will say that it isn't that. Sorry. **


	23. Family Issues : Part II

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

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_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Lieutenant Black has offered you a special commendation, and a recommendation that your mission be moved post-listing to a class three mission due to circumstances encountered, and your exploits therein." The Headmistress said quickly, smiling as she walked between them in the Bullhead docks and handed each of them an envelope.

It was simple manilla, but on one side had been stamped with the silver seal of Beacon. Through the thin paper, he could feel several small squares in his, and assumed that the others held the same. Payment for their work, which was a touch on the rare side at Beacon, where most of their pay would be taken at the head of them _getting_ it to pay tuition - so as to avoid debt ridden Hunters after graduation, he assumed - as well as restock on the basic supplies, like tents and basic ammunition, Beacon provided. For first years, that meant they got nothing or close enough to it, since their mission levels were locked.

Locked to class _one_, that was, and this was three times that.

"Inside your envelopes are official commendations and clearances for rest, signed by myself and the Headmaster, which dismiss you from classes for three days." She explained, standing before them with her hands clasped before her and a thin, but shockingly present, a smile on her face. "No homework, no detentions for skipping, and the like are all included as well as the right to medical aid if any of you wish for a checkup. I am required to add that if any of you need further rest, additional class waivers will be issued."

"We're all alright, Headmistress." He answered quietly, drumming the fingers of his off hand on his thigh and forcing a smile. "Some bruises, and Nora got shocked by a dr-" He caught himself and feigned looking to her to check that she was alright, "You _are_ alright, right, Nora? That last robot shocked you pretty bad, and then you took a spill."

"Pfft, I'm _fine_, fearless leader! We already told you about how my Semblance works." To show it, she grinned and started flexing like a body builder. As though _that_ was a good counter to his anxieties, somehow. Grinning, she straightened and dusted her hands off, spreading them after a second and saying, "See? Juuuuust fine."

"I'm afraid I don't follow…" The headmistress murmured, genuinely confused for the first time he could say for sure he'd seen her express it.

"Her Semblance allows her to take in electricity of any kind and use it as power, without hurting her at all." Ren explained for the Headmistress, offering a small smile of apology. "You'd have seen it in spars, if it weren't so difficult to electrocute her mid-fight."

"I can see how that could be an issue, outside the odd team on team match." The headmistress admitted freely, seemingly more relaxed and in a good mood. "And the difficulty of using it explains why I hadn't seen records on it, either. I doubt many enemies you'd fight in a spar would attempt electrocution, either."

"Do you not… Know the student's Semblances?" It was Pyrrha who asked that. And for obvious reasons, too, given her desired secrecy around her own and precisely how it functioned.

"Oh no, that would be quite impossible to maintain. Spotty and inefficient, based solely on self-reporting." The woman tutted, which was close enough to a laugh that he considered it a chuckle at least, and shook her head. "The process is rather dry, but simply put, we observe and compile the usages of Semblances we see on record. The main purpose is to guide our students, if we can, in developing their Semblances."

"That's…" Creepy, he wanted to say, and worrying for obvious personal reasons, if they decided to go digging in his made-up past. Instead, though, he finished with a weak, "Helpful."

"Well, this _is_ an educational establishment." She smirked then - actually _smirked_, too, with her head cocked to the side and a hand resting on a cocked hip - and added, "What, did you think our teaching consisted of making you hit each other and just praying you learned to hit each other _better_?"

A successful mission outside of what they should have been ready for, at least on paper, and with _no_ casualties was doing wonders for her mood, it seemed.

"Maybe we could try out a team match sometime, then?" He suggested, more than eager for some fools to take out his aggravation out on. A mild amount of aggravation, to be honest, for their failing to find any _real power_ in a Revanite Temple. Smiling hopefully, for a mix of good and bad reasons alike, he suggested, "So we could improve, I mean. I have a few team ideas, if you wouldn't mind…"

"Only second-year teams are permitted to partake in team on team bouts during sparring lessons." The headmistress, for all her somewhat brighter mood, wouldn't budge on her rules. He knew that much well enough, as did literally everyone at Beacon. "Still, you all certainly proved yourselves out there. Enough so that the elusive Atlesian SRD's respect, and a note that they will want you for further work. Not necessarily protection, oddly enough. In fact, they have offered to hire Hunters to protect them _and_ you."

"I can read Sith, an old language my teacher taught me in my lessons as I grew up." He explained, knowing she'd be able to find out by asking _them_ regardless of his oh so tempting desire to try and obscure it. Shrugging, he _did_ try to obscure a little bit elsewhere, though, adding, "I don't know why it's there, though. Just how to read it _well enough_. I can't _speak_ it, though."

"A common enough thing with ancient languages, I believe Doctor Oobleck has told me. You shouldn't let it bother you, Mister Arc." She seemed to pay it no mind, though, instead moving on once she was sure he wasn't upset over the fact. Drawing another envelope from a folder held in her hand, she offered it to him and explained, "Contact information, should you wish to continue working with the ASRD more directly. Otherwise, they will contact you when they need you."

"Thank you." He'd need to think about _that_ idea, he knew. And talk to Pyrrha. For now, though, he simply smiled and nodded, asking, "Will that be all, Ma'am? I think we'd all enjoy a good meal and a chance to really relax, if you don't mind."

"Of course." She nodded, stepping aside and waving a hand towards the door with a pleased and pleasant smile. "And have a good rest, as well."

He took three steps and paused, the Force echoing of something odd he couldn't place. Giving the headmistress a look, he could feel a sort of… Echo of something malignant, coming from her. Or _off_ her, maybe. He couldn't tell, though, and didn't have the time to stay and focus, nor a way to do it without drawing undue attention onto himself.

Instead, when Pyrrha laid a hand on his shoulder, he smiled and said a simple, "Have a good day, Headmistress. I look forward to my next combat class."

She bowed her head with a bemused smile and he turned and left, without a backward look for her. He sensed her eyes on his back all the way, though, even though he didn't dare look. Something was odd, but he couldn't place it for now. And in truth, with Pyrrha's life still in danger and Jaune not knowing where to expect the shot from, he didn't have any desire to delve into whatever was going on with her.

And given Miss Goodwitch didn't use a _bow_, he saw no reason to pay whatever secrets she was holding any mind. _If_ he'd even sensed secret-keeping and not simply misinterpreted something else entirely. Regardless, he put it out of mind and sighed as he stepped into the familiar halls of Beacon and turned to Nora.

"Since you solved the puzzle," he smiled, "I think a pancake dinner is in order."

"OH YES PLEASE!" The girl practically _howled_, grabbing the lot of her team up in her arms in a huge hug and carrying them off. Equally loudly, she howled, "Pancake Day, hoooo~! Oh! We should invite team RWBY over for it, too!

"Nora, calm down or no syrup."

"But Ren!" The excited girl countered, bouncing excitedly around them, "It's _pancake day!_"

She said the words like they explained everything about her excitement, and why they weren't allowed to care. And, with a loud chuckle, Jaune decided he agreed. Ren didn't, though, and continued chiding her while she bounced around as they went inside.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Back so soon, Miss Goodwitch?" The blonde woman sighed and rolled her eyes as she stepped out of the elevator and into the spacious office. The source of her eye roll and sigh chuckled at her for it, leaning back in his seat and reading a small paper held in his hands aloud, "He demonstrated a direct ability related to the myths surrounding the ancient temple and, as note, the 'Curator' referred to him as a Force user. While possible that his Semblance fooled the machine, it is still odd that a machine dedicated ostensibly to discerning that _could_ be fooled like that."

"Black's report?" She asked, walking to a rolling cart beside the elevator and making herself a cup of warm hot chocolate, kept hot in the pot he'd used to make and mix it. Not the coffee she'd hoped for, to be sure, but it was warm and sweet. And a kind of comfort from the breeze she'd felt outside. "Getting ahold of _that_ took no time at all, it would seem."

"Indeed." The man nodded, stirring a spoon idly through his own drink and pushing the report across the table for her to review. "It would seem that having friends in _literally_ high places is a boon indeed."

"Brothers, don't _you_ start on the puns too." The Grimm even knew how many she had to suffer through with Miss Xiao Long. Though she trusted his word implicitly, she took the report and started skimming through it. One thing swiftly popped up and caught her eye and, taking a sip, she parroted, "James added a note saying that he find it 'convenient how much of the situation simply fell together with a Semblance that matched perfectly and robots that seemed to see it and assume he was what they were made to work with'."

"Oh yes, I saw that." Ozpin nodded, "And I do find it rather interesting myself as well. Robots like those aren't like the Knights James is so fond of."

"You know of them?" He nodded as she expected, and she made a face caught between amusement and resignation. "Of course you do, as old as you are."

"I like to think I look rather well for, oh…" The old man sighed and took a breath, miming thinking while he looked out the window at passing Bullheads. And birds. There were lots of birds. For a moment, she wondered if he was looking for a _specific_ bird, flying in weird and awkward patterns. Smiling, the ancient man joked before she could think any longer, "I'm sorry, I appear to have forgotten how old I look. What say we settle on a century and compliment how good I look?"

"You are far older than that, and you and I both know it." And fishing for compliments like a young tart would, too, but his smile told her he knew that too. "Regardless, what do you think of all of this?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean what I said, Ozpin. Don't be obtuse." And he understood perfectly well what she was getting at, she was sure. He smiled, though, and she sighed tiredly, already full up for the day on his games. "What does all of this tell you? The observations at the temple that team Juniper discovered, and the robot's words. Sir, if something _strange_ is going on regarding Mister Arc, then maybe we shouldn't-"

"If his strangeness is a sign of anything, I know what it is. An old power, to be sure, and even in my time a mystery." She must have shown her typical displeasure at his equally typical 'veneer of mystique', as he liked to call it, because he smiled and chuckled. "Forgive me, Glynda. The power in question is old and I confess I have forgotten most of its implications and applications."

"So?" Her brow rose, "What do _we_ do about this? With Amber in her state… A decision needs to be made. We _need_ our protector, Ozpin."

"Well, I happen to believe that this only settles my decision. Or as close to settles as can be, of course, without talking to our potential young guardian." He smiled that insufferable smile, then, and took a long sip of his drink. Tapping the thin porcelain rim in thought, the man sighed, and made the decision that they had simultaneously needed to get done and been dreading. "Please send Miss Nikos a message tomorrow morning, Miss Goodwitch."

"I see." So he'd decided to go ahead with her, then. She'd have preferred an older student, really, but in the end, she trusted his judgment.

"Set the meeting up for after breakfast, though." The man instructed simply with a sigh, flicking open his scroll and murmuring a last order, "And send the message later tonight. If we're right, then I suspect young Mister Arc's reaction will be… Well, I would wager that we shall see soon enough."

"I understand, Headmaster." He was meaning to test the young man, somehow, then. She could tell from the way he sat, watching the sky and rocking his chair gently. "It will be done, Headmaster. Will that be all?"

"On this matter? Yes, most certainly." He sighed and took another drink, then and turned to meet her gaze again, seemingly glad to be able to move on. "Do we have any updates on our Schnee situation? Last I heard we were getting everything from threats of Dust sanction to demands of new team assignments for Miss Schnee."

"Well, his lawyers have contacted us." She nodded with a thin grimace, pulling her Scroll from her blouse and flicking it open. "First they are filing a team transfer request due to 'a terrorist threat'." She clicked her tongue and shook her head, "That'll be in regards to young Belladonna, I'm sure."

"Probably, yes." He laughed and shook his head, smiling all the while. "We have no teams with a vacancy, and unless someone offers and _Miss Schnee_ asks, we won't be allowing a swap. Also," he added, giving her a knowing look, "inform his _lawyers_ that if any teams are contacted by them or SDC representatives, we will be filing harassment injunctions."

"Understood." And she couldn't agree more, for that matter. Typing the response for their own lawyers to translate and process, she dismissed it and moved to the next note. With a chuckle, she read it out, "They are also filing negligence charges, for… Not having Miss Belladonna on record as a Faunus, and allowing the information to be made public."

"As though we should check our student's _race_ as a priority of any consideration." The man chuckled, running his finger around the rim of his mug. "Tell them to take _that_ argument to court. I look forward to them trying to argue student's records should be public access _or_ that we should announce their races."

"Understood." And personally, she was looking forward to the attempt too. It would be hilarious to watch, truly, if they did. "The rest is petty and minute. Price negotiation requests among them, too, because… Because of course there is."

"Hm. Of course indeed." Another short, quiet laugh and the man waved her off. Or rather, waved the notion of raising how much they'd pay for Dust just because Jacques demanded so. "Well, I trust you know how to handle that specific rhyme of nonsense, Miss Goodwitch."

"I know very well, sir." She smiled and flicked her Scroll closed, knowing she wouldn't be able to do what she wanted until she had time in her office. "I will ask their representatives to a meeting and refuse their demands outright. And point out that the only sorts of meetings they would get on the matter would be the same waste of fuel as that meeting, unless they wanted _us_ to sue them for blackmail."

"Very good, Miss Goodwitch." Ozpin nodded, "Very good."

"Will that be all then, sir?"

"Yes, yes it will. You're dismissed, and I hope you have a good day." He gave her a nod in farewell as she rose, and watched her leave.

Once the doors of the elevator closed, she sighed and rolled her eyes, the man already watching something on his Scroll with _great_ interest. Which meant either a new report or the security feeds, monitoring their newly chosen Guardian and thinking as he often did. The thought only earned another sigh and tired but resigned roll of her eyes, knowing him well enough to predict his actions and knowing herself well enough to predict that she'd run along behind him cleaning up. As always. Still, though.

That man certainly had a way of digging up more work for her…

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Nora, calm down." Ren sighed, smiling even as he chided her and she dragged him through the hall's at nearly breakneck speed, the other partner pair of their team trailing behind with thin smiles. "RWBY's dorm won't vanish if we get there at a normal speed, you know."

"We don't know that!" She argued excitedly, "A Grimm dragon could come and steal their room away!"

"That sounds kind of impossible…"

"Hey, dragons like princesses, and Weiss is basically a princess, right?" She didn't wait for an answer, not that Jaune and Pyrrha, so far behind the duo, could have answered at all. Shooting them a wide smile, she turned back to her oldest friend and added, "Dragons steal princesses, Ren! We have to save Weiss~!"

Whatever Ren wanted to counter with was lost as the girl took off, the young Mistralian half running and half being carried away by his excitable partner. The other two of their team swiftly gave up on trying to follow them completely. Or rather, on keeping up with them, since they both doubted _very _sincerely that a dragon had whisked Weiss away. Though the image of Ruby armed and chasing after it was an amusing one.

And probably something she'd be willing to do, knowing her.

"We'll have to find our own way, I suppose. I can't imagine we'll get lost, though." Pyrrha voiced the words as they slowed, looking around at the mostly empty hallway. Without all the people coming and going, the halls were quiet enough their voices echoed as they talked. "It's eerie, being so quiet like this."

"Yeah." He gestured at a painting of a young man in light plate holding a staff and beaming a smile out of a royal room, and shrugged. "Least we can see the artwork, though. Normally it's so loud and crowded, you can't really see it all that well."

"Indeed. Or the path ahead, for that matter. Normally, seeing the _ground_ is like trying to see a sheep for the forest." She turned her head to hide her laugh, the way Mistralians often did, at a joke he didn't understand. When she turned back to him he made his confusion evident on his face and offered a shrug, and she smiled apologetically. "Oh, I'm sorry! I… It's a Mistralian joke. In ancient Mistral, we did a lot of herding. Goats, sheep, cattle, the like. And they often got lost in the hills and forests. Finding them was always hard, hence the-"

"Yeah, no, I got it." He smiled and she giggled again, turning aside to hide it. Before he could catch himself, he grunted, "You shouldn't do that."

"I shouldn't… Do what?" She gave him a look but he didn't answer, instead shrugging and gesturing at her with a hand, and then his own face. Awkward and anxious, caught off guard by himself as odd as it was, and she laughed again. This time, though, she didn't turn away, shaking her head after, "Gods, Jaune. You ought not tease me, it's quite unkind of you."

"Right." He nodded, glad for the out and more than eager to take it. Seeing the easy segue, he jumped on it, lowering his voice and stepping close enough to her that their arms hit each other's sides as they walked. "What should we do about the Sith archive, then?"

"I'm assuming you have ideas, as you are bringing it up?" She answered, one brow raised and a small smile still playing across her lips. At what, he wasn't sure, but he forced himself to pay it no mind.

"We gather up whatever books we can buy with this," he answered, raising up his envelope and gesturing to hers in her own hand, her armor lacking pockets for it, "and we reach out to Black again. Back to the temple, and we trade it for time."

"Research." She nodded, "To find ways to make us more powerful for whatever is coming."

"Yeah, that. Research for power. Power for survival." He nodded, rounding a corner and headed through the dorms towards their room. Or, well, towards RWBY's room, since that was where their wild Nora had gone off to. Idly, he mused, "Trading power for survival is the Sith way, you know."

"The way of warriors every _where_ and every _when_, were I to pose my opinion on the matter." He didn't bother pointing out that she had, just then, already posed her opinion to the subject. Instead, he simply nodded, and she went on after a moment, "What sort of information do you think will be there, though? Or do you have a specific idea on what to look for at all? Or are we simply looking more for the generality of 'useful things'?"

"That's a lot of questions." He smiled, earning a small flush from her. They were good questions, though. "The last one, Pyr. I'm looking for whatever could be useful, I don't have any specifics in mind. Unless one of those has the information and codes for a star cruiser or something, I can't think of anything that would, by itself, be helpful."

"Star cruiser?"

"Think along the lines of an Atlesian battleship, except out in space." He answered, the concepts clearly obtuse enough she had trouble, but earning a _more_ understanding nod. Those ships were, of course, bigger, but something like a Sith warship would do wonders for them… "More likely I'm hoping to find schematics for armor, maybe for droids even, or blaster technology and sources of ammunition. Force techniques would be useful, too. Or relics."

"Yeah, well, just kind of hoping for the best. You know?" He shrugged as they rounded a final corner and he spotted Nora and Ren in the hallway, Ruby in the girl's arms. A waft of negative emotions hit him and he grunted, eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Something's wrong… Something's _happened_, and something's wrong."

What it was, he was sure he'd find out soon enough. But for now? He was already angry, because when Nora turned to look at him, she wasn't even feigning excitement and joy to bring the mood up. Her eyes were reddening, her lip quivering, and in the quietest, most broken voice he'd heard in all his knowing her, she said a simple, "Jaune…"

Not 'fearless leader' or 'tall spooky boy' if she was in a teasing mood, he noted with a deep frown and closing fists. _Jaune_.

And that distinction couldn't mean _anything_ good.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Argus 456 :**_

**You shall (maybe) find out one day~ Hue hue hue~**

_**Jaws on You :**_

**I mean, it's a cool image, yeah. I honestly don't have the super end game of this story planned out as yet so who knows. Might happen.**

_**Zenith Tempest :**_

**The issue with his power scaling HERE is that the Trials were designed to counter a Force user and his saber. Their armor was resistant to his strikes and the larger droids were too big for him to easily move and crush. Without getting into it, I would put him on par with his contemporaries, where canon Jaune was definitively below par.**

**Blake does not 'get rewarded' for running away. Her 'reward' for running from the Fang was being stabbed and seeing her friend lose her arm. She ran for decent reasons - what else do you do when a terrorist says he'll hurt anyone you are close to - and aside from being forgiven, has never been rewarded. So I don't understand what you are getting at. **

_**Winter Breath 0602 :**_

**Who knows, that might be where I'm going with this? We shall see~**


	24. Maidens and Mystics - Part I

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

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_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Come morning, the others were still asleep, Pyrrha herself often awake before anyone except Jaune himself. And he was already gone, off to his morning meditations on the roof as he was so wont to do no doubt. And given his anger at what they'd been told the night before, about what was happening to team RWBY, she had no doubt that he needed the time alone. Quiet, to calm himself down and prevent himself lashing out. And, she had _no_ doubt for how well she knew him, how he could turn it to advantage.

For team RWBY or them, she had no idea, but for now he had her faith.

Rising quietly, she gathered her uniform and Scroll and went to take a nice, hot shower, leaving the little device plugged in by the sink to charge while she cleaned herself. After, smelling and feeling far cleaner and more relaxed, she set about the somewhat arduous task of braiding her hair. A bit of an annoyance, in all honesty, but she loved her long hair and having it tied back was just safer. A hand fisted in long hair could drive even the most stalwart Hunter to their knees, gender not mattering. She'd seen it happen to another Huntress in the arena, when she was younger, and her instructor had told her countless stories of warriors who'd died for the same.

That it made her look good had always been a plus, both in her mind and in her various agent's minds. A rare congruence between her and them, as well as them and those among their own number. And so an easy decision for all involved, for once in their time together. She'd then had to shoot down a dozen photo-shoots, of course, as they always tended a bit too skin-heavy for her liking, but all that came and went brought and took both good and bad.

You just had to adapt to it and, in the end, she was at _least_ good at adapting.

"Which is how you survive this too, Nikos. Adapt, survive, overcome..." She murmured to the reflection in the mirror, hands absent-mindedly twining her hair across the towel covering her chest.

Her eyes lingered over the cleft of her breasts, where her heart was, and she felt it race. Her hand tightened around the ponytail at the reminder, nails digging into her palm, focusing her. Letting out a breath, she sighed and pulled the towel up, hiding the pale flesh from view and pushing the thoughts out of her head. Obsessing only led to wallowing in her anxiety and fear or worse, lashing out desperately in a vain search for salvation. _Neither_ of which would work for her here, she knew.

Though it pained her, she also knew it meant she couldn't do much to help her friends. She didn't have the funds to compete with the SDC, and she couldn't make a public war of it. Not with the headsman's axe hovering over her neck. Or, more accurately she supposed grimly, the headsman's _bow_ aimed at her heart. And so, though it _pained her_, she couldn't step up and do anything.

Public humiliation wasn't worth fighting over when it could cost her _life_, and she was sure team RWBY would agree. But still...

"Fate is fickle as it spins its web, an eager spider against which you do not step. But if in fate's web you tread be careful of its tangled webs, dragging down what struggles first." She murmured the old nursery rhyme as she stood and cast the towel away to get dressed. In recent days, when she was alone, she'd taken to reciting it out of habit, having heard it from her own mother as a child.

Then, when she was young and beaming a toothy grin at any and every story that spoke of ancient honor and heroics. Young, then, and so naive. But not one to look too deeply into the words actually being said, when the picture book showed resplendent warriors fighting back a dragon.

Older now, she could see the macabre idea at the core of the rhyme, and remember the dark shapes of men and women dead on the ground in the same book. Accept whatever your fate was, with honor and integrity, and be in one of these two hero's shows. Dead buying a chance for the future, or alive and striking down the beast before you. A good story in ancient times, when men and women with wooden spears had to fend off Goliaths attacking their tribes and holdings. The Mistralian way, that was, bound up in honor and carried in on a shield.

A good end, eventually, but that was the thing.

_Eventually_ didn't mean _soon_, and Jaune had warned her of _soon_. She wasn't a coward, she'd shown as much, but… Even Leo of Ides had resisted the First king's army when it crossed from Sanus to Anima to conquer it, and he'd know for fact that his ultimate victory _relied_ on his dying.

"Only a fool doesn't fear death. And only the suicidal don't resist it when they see it." She reminded herself, going through the same morning song and dance of _not_ losing her mind with everything going on. A dance that ended significantly _after_ she finished her makeup, but which was interrupted as he Scroll chimed.

Finishing her foundation and reaching for it, she flicked it open and hummed, reading, "_Please meet with the Headmaster as soon as possible. He will be waiting for you all day in his room, but earlier is better. A matter of dire importance awaits and you are requested to come alone. Why will be explained there. Only you are to come. Anyone else will be asked to leave. Thank you. ~ Headmistress Goodwitch."_

The insistence, not just once but _twice_, that she be alone had her on edge. Her chest ached where Jaune told her she would be struck down, but she shook it off. Neither the headmaster _or_ headmistress used arrows, and neither would kill her in his own office. Such would be too obvious. But there she was,weighing the likelihood of her friends and teachers killing her in cold blood.

This paranoia was warping her…

"Good morning." Ren murmured, waiting by the door with a sleepy Nora as was tradition. She gave him a nod, said she was going to meet the headmaster, and the man paused, eyes narrowing. Just as quietly, he asked, "Why?"

"Don't know yet, I'm afraid." She answered truthfully, packing her bag with books idly as she did. "I aim to find out, though, as easy as that will probably be. Do you know where my second year Grimm Studies book went?"

"Under the bed." Ren answered, shoving Nora into the bathroom and wishing her a good day before joining her.

Whether they were strictly needed to study and attend whatever classes there were today or not, she had a penchant for doing so regardless. And the teachers didn't mind her sitting in, as long as she stayed caught up. Besides, it was a good distraction, and a good way to better herself. That logic had made it a winner in Jaune's book, at least. Though he knew she didn't need his permission, she'd stood her ground enough for her to be sure of _that_ even if he was the controlling type, it was still good to enable their coordination.

That was how she - and _they_ \- survived whatever mess was coming intact, they both knew.

Her pack on her back, she left, walking through the early morning halls towards Beacon Tower. Where the headmaster himself had called for her, and there was her paranoia again, curling in her stomach like a weighted snake. Once again, she ignored it until the weight went away, and sighed as a _new_ anxiety hit her in the chest.

'_What on Remnant could the headmaster want with her?'_ She thought, coming to a stop in front of the elevator and pursing her lips. She stared at the closed elevator door like it could answer, then sighed. She half-turned to leave, and then stopped again, and sighed again. Quietly, she chided herself, "To think the 'Invincible Girl' is so afraid of a mere _door_… What would my opponents do if they knew?"

"Go into a match against you with doors roped to their backs and chests, I imagine."She started at the sudden voice and turned to find the headmaster himself, chuckling and smiling over a steaming cup of what she assumed to be- "Cocoa, not coffee, this morning. I have more in my office if you want some."

Cocoa.

What she assumed to be hot, morning _cocoa_.

"I-I am quite alright for now, but thank you." She stammered, caught off guard by the man - who she'd not heard in the least, a testament to her absent mind or his practiced hand, or maybe both - and turning to face him directly and more respectfully. Clearing her throat, she prompted, politely, "You… You asked me to come and see you, Sir?"

"I did indeed, Miss Nikos." In full view of her he turned, looking around as though to spot those who could be listening in while he took a drink. Once he'd turned around and seemed satisfied, he look back to her with a smile of satisfaction. "Well, seeing as things are in order, shall we?"

"I… Suppose so, yes." Though what he could mean by 'in order' she wasn't precisely sure, the hallway not quite empty but as clean as always.

"I have a couple of guests for you to meet as well." He explained as they stepped forward and he slid his identification card into a little slot by the call button, overriding the rarely used thing to bring it directly to him. When it dinged open on a sleepy, surprised looking Port, Ozpin simply smiled and murmured an apology, beckoning him out.

To her surprise, and rising anxiety, the man simply stepped out with a quietly murmured, "Good Morning, Headmaster.

"The same to you, Peter. I hear they are doing breakfast casserole in the cafeteria today." The man grunted and, paying her no mind at all, meandered off to wherever he was headed. The cafeteria, she guessed, from how tired he looked so early and the direction he was headed in. That he'd ignored her wholly dashed the paranoid hope that since she'd been seen, she'd be safer than she might otherwise have been. Her disappointment must have shown and been misread, though, because Ozpin chuckled, "A fan of the casserole?"

"I-I, well, yes." She stammered, embarrassed and caught off guard at having been caught out. Anxiously, she tugged her ponytail around to run her hands over, the sensation soothing, and rambled, "I-I like the biscuits which they tend to serve with them more, though, if I'm honest. Butter, cheesy and garlic is just…"

"A taste of home?" Ozpin prompted amiably as the door slid closed in front of them and, at a single button from the man, began to rise steadily. "Northern Mistralian cuisine tends to favor buttery and savory foods, if I recall correctly. And you spent many of your years in the northern territories."

"I did, yes." And though it was common knowledge, with her tournament career and where she'd studied early Huntress skills at, she felt a pang of paranoia. A pang she quashed, of course, leaning into the conversation for the distraction of it. "They served breakfast casseroles much like they do here over there, albeit caked atop with cheese and crumbled bacon and biscuit. And the biscuits are clearly of Mistralian design as well."

"The cheese and biscuit must make for a delicious crunch on the crust." Ozpin observed, earning a nod from the girl and smiling. Fishing his Scroll free, the man typed out a message that he explained as he scribed. "Our meeting will likely drag, and I haven't eaten. I doubt, as early as it is, that you have either."

"I have not, sir." Aside from a small protein bar the likes of which she kept to hand for whenever she needed a quick calorie infusion. And if he was ordering it made specially by the cooks… "The, uh, Mistralian style has a tiny sprinkle of red pepper on the crust as well. To compliment the savor of the sausage and garlic."

"Hm?" He shot her an amused look and she flushed, stammering an apology. The headmaster only chuckled, waving her concerns off and reassuring her breezily, "The suggestion sounds wonderful, Miss Nikos. I will add it to the order, since we intend to ask so much of you. Though rest assured that if you refuse then you can still eat, of course. It's not meant as a bribe, and I am _not_ so cruel as to deny you your favorite food."

"What is it that you-"

"In a moment, Miss Nikos." Ozpin cut her off, the doors sliding open on his office as though his words had prompted it. Inside was Miss Goodwitch, as she'd expected, but there were two more people with her. A man in military uniform whose face tickled the back of her mind, and another slouched in a chair, nursing a silver flask. Ozpin introduced both as they stepped into the room, gesturing to each in turn, "You know the deputy headmistress, of course."

"I do." She nodded, "Good morning."

"The man in the uniform is General James Ironwood, headmaster of Atlas Academy and the head of their entire military as well." That was where she knew him, then. The name and titles reminded her of the paper, about the man who held more power than any other, sitting on two Council seats at once. With a nod from the seated man, Ozpin finished with, "And this is Qrow Branwen, my personal agent in the field. An excellent Huntsman in his own right."

"Good morning, Sirs." For Ironwood, she curtsied elegantly, owing politeness to his station. The man nodded in kind and, anxious again, she turned back to Ozpin and asked, "Sir, why are such… Important people, all gathered here?"

"There are many answers to that question." Ozpin half-answered, striding past her and around his desk to ease into his seat. Easing into it, he took a drink and again began gesturing to each of his guests as she took her own seat, between them all. "Miss Goodwitch is here to work with James, that is General Ironwood, in the interests of ending a certain legal battle I am embroiled in."

"Team RWBY." Pyrrha nodded, shrugging when the older man's brow rose in question. "We were told of it already, sir. We're good friends, after all."

"Indeed you are." The way he said it was odd, even as simple as the words were. As _normal_ as they were. They were said too consideringly, as though he were noting it for _use_. Regardless, he moved on before she could consider it, "Qrow is here for other matters, related to why we asked you here. What we want from you. Or rather, what we hope you can help us do, for the people of Vale and beyond."

"I see." And gods did his phrasing sound geared to her. Or was that the paranoia talking again? She couldn't tell, really. For now she only nodded and, quietly, asked, "What is it you are going to ask of me, then? It must be important for such prestigious individuals to be involved with it."

"Oh it is _very_ important indeed." The man smiled, nodding and leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table, and his chin on his interlaced fingers. Watching her for a moment, he finally asked a question that surprised her, "Tell me Miss Nikos, what is your favorite fairy tale?"

For a moment, all she could do was blink owlishly.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Jaune had been angry many, many times in his life. Fury was, after all, a weapon for a Sith. And while he was certainly no Lord, using his emotions, and gauging how deep or rabid they ran, was old hat to him. Instructor had quite literally beaten that into him, citing that it was the most important skill for a Sith and thus invaluable on the Path of Balance as an excuse. Jaune had learned the lessons quickly, clutching stinging wounds or bruises and explaining rapidly how angry he was in clear, concise words. Sorrow, love, passion, joy, these were taught later.

Taught and retaught, until he could describe them in the flowery language of poets, and understood them as deeply.

Tied with the Force, then, he could sense the emotions of others. And the other occupant of the roof was positively _fuming_, radiating shame, grief and rage in waves like a tempest, stirring the Force up. Had he been any weaker, of will or mind or even in using the Force, the hurricane it kicked up could have overwhelmed him. Washed him away and dragged him under to drown in her own emotions.

"What do you want, Jaune?" Blake finally snapped, sitting with her back against an air conditioning vent and a leg dangling off the roof comfortably. Apparently, she was tired of him standing there silently, looking over Beacon and just… Well, basking in her anger, to help him understand how she felt. "Or are you just taking in the view? A helpless Faunus wanting some alone time, hiding from the world tickle your fancy?"

"Don't snap at me because the universe shit in your cereal. I'm only here to offer my help, if I can be of any. Distant as we are, we _are_ friends." It was a bit coarse of a response, he knew, but it had the desired effect. Blake clammed up, ashamed at her snapping at a friend, tucking her knee against her chest and curling an arm around it. Sighing, he apologized, "I didn't mean to be… Well, mean. I'm sorry."

"It's fine." Blake nodded, "Me too."

"No classes today?" He asked, probing her for information she'd at least think useless. Or unrelated, at least.

"Actually, yeah, we do." She chuckled darkly and shook her head, "I ditched. My team is being supportive of Weiss and I, but…"

"But you wanted to be alone." He guessed, earning a small nod from her and taking a seat on the edge of the roof, feet dangling over a dorm below him. And beyond that, over trees. Sighing, he asked, tired already and sounding it, "So, what's the plan, then?"

"Excuse me?"

"The plan." He repeated, giving her a hard look out of the corner of his eyes. "If things go south, and I mean _hard south_, what is your plan? The SDC isn't exactly a forgiving entity, from what I've heard."

"Depends…"

"On?" In answer, she looked up and flicked her ears and Jaune nodded understandingly. A human wouldn't get much better, he suspected, but pointing that out would only aggravate her further. Instead, he explained, "If things go badly, what do we do? And don't," he cut in, when her eyes narrowed like she was going to argue, "say that there 'is no we' or whatever, Blake. Friends stick together."

"You barely know me…"

"Nora cried last night." He grunted, remembering the sight, before they'd put on a movie and had pancakes. Even laughing and curled up with her partner, her eyes had been red. With a shrug, he finished lamely, "Even if I didn't care about any of you, she does. So I have to, too, even if it seems not to make any sense."

A crying Nora was enough to break your heart, after all.

"...There is no backup plan." Blake finally admitted, seemingly resigned to him involving himself. In explanation, when he turned to her in surprise, she murmured numbly, "Ozpin is intervening to deal with it. He told us not to worry about it. And with no better options myself, well..." Another shrug, "I don't exactly have any ideas beyond waiting and hoping he can sort it out."

"Hm." It wasn't a _bad_ plan, per se, but it was somewhat anticlimactic to hear. Especially given what little they'd told him about Blake's past. Sensing something about it, he murmured, loud enough for her to hear, "What about the Fang?"

"What _about_ them?" Her eyes were narrower than ever when he met her eyes and her ears were both facing him. Alert. _Suspicious_.

"You were a member, and now this? The rumors about you and Weiss?" He raised an eyebrow at how she stiffened and flushed, well aware of the rumors he was talking about. And apparently dirtier ones, too, from how embarrassed she looked. Turning back to look out on Beacon, he repeated and expounded, "So, what about the Fang? What will they do? Will they do anything?"

"To Beacon?" Blake scoffed, "I doubt it. Beacon doesn't care _what_ you are, or were, only what you want to do."

"Speaking from experience?" She scowled and looked away, eyes narrowed, and he sighed. Like pulling teeth, this was… "I need to know what to expect, Blake. What to watch out for."

"You speak like you know what to look for."

"I do sound like that, don't I?" He sighed and shook his head, thinking. Deciding. How much to tell, how much to imply, and whether he should do _either_ without Pyrrha here. Finally, he settled on, "I know there's a threat to my partner's life. And no," he cut in again when she made to argue, this time with a confused face rather than an affronted on, "I won't explain what the threat is or how it got to me. Ask all you want, I won't say a word."

"That's… Ominous." He shrugged and she sighed, giving up on questioning it at least for now. Turning aside, she tried a different tact, "If you won't answer _my_ questions, I won't answer yours."

"Not good enough." He shook his head, reaching out into the Force and _pushing_ it towards her. _Into_ her, overwhelming her mind forcefully. She winced and he pushed through the bit of resistance he was surprised to find, asking very simply, "What are the odds the White Fang attack Beacon? And if they did, what would they do to _accomplish_ that?"

"I… I don't..." She blinked and he felt too much resistance for a normal person to muster, her face pinching as the Force pushed her will aside. Tried to get her to agree to his way of thinking and tell her what he wanted, even though she didn't want to. It was no Mind Trick, he was siphoning too much negativity to power for that, but after a second she blinked and answered. "I don't think the Fang would attack Beacon. Too risky, and no return."

"No return?" He prompted, releasing the Force now she was talking.

"Beacon helps everyone. Human, Faunus, they protect them all the same. And the headmaster is known to be egalitarian." She shrugged, then, and Jaune nodded. That was her answer, and pushing would get him nothing, even if the thought didn't make him sick already.

Knowing he'd already pushed her as far as he could, he stood, "I'll leave you to your thinking, then."

"Thanks." She grunted, turning once more to look out on Beacon and shaking off the control he'd exercised over her. Limited and short-lived as it had been, she would feel off for a while yet, he was sure.

As he pulled the door back into the building open, his Scroll buzzed and he flicked it open. "Yeah, Pyr?"

"I… Need you to come to Ozpin's office, Jaune." His brow furrowed and, after a second, she added in a quiet voice, "It's about our… _Problem_. The one we've been working on for a while? I think I… Found a lead."

"On my way." He grunted shortly, uncaring if Blake heard him and slamming the door behind him. Whatever was going on, why-ever Ozpin had called her, he was suddenly _very_ anxious.

Maybe he'd get his saber before going to meet her… It would make him feel better, at least.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Jacques sighed and pinched his nose, sitting in his office with a dozen lawyers in front of him, holding _heaps_ of documents piled over their shoulders and in their arms.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**So the start of the Maiden aspect of this story~! Next chapter will center a bit more on progressing the Family Issues storyline, but THAT ONE is going to develop over time. I appreciate any patience you offer. I want to give these stories the air they need to breathe as arcs unfold, rather than rushing.**_

_**Besides, I have a feeling Oz would put the Maiden over Schnee silliness.**_

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Talon Ibn la Ahad :**_

…**..Sir, my lawyers will be in touch.**

_**Argus :**_

**That is very true. Nora with a SSD is an **_**image**_ **though. Why do i feel like she'd try and blow up a star to match its name…?**

_**Steelrain :**_

**The more this story progresses and gains interesting avenues, the more I plan a potential follow-up with a wider galaxy.**

_**Melee Smasher :**_

**She ran to save Yang's life, hoping Adam would leave her be if Blake was gone. Which, turns out, she was right. Adam was laser focused on her. And she still **_**hated**_ **herself for it. Her 'reward' was a family that loved her? Rewards aren't what you **_**already have**_**, friend, at least generally speaking. **

**This is just an example, friendo. I will **_**not**_ **be elaborating further. These stories are meant to be fun, but Hatedom trolling means I have stopped responding to such reviews. Just skim through and you'll see a good number of the Haters heckling me. **

**And to be VERY clear, I don't mean **_**any**_ **insult to you at all. S'just a ruleset I adopted after the noise. I would have only ignored you if I thought you were a basher.**


	25. Maidens and Mystics - Part II

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

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**I have recaptured my escaped Mii Mii for edits. No clue how long it will last, she escapes my traps easily, but she's here now~!**

_**Mii-Mii :**_

***Angry fox noises***

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Ozpin himself was there to meet him when he reached the elevator, wearing his robes and carrying his weapon. The man stood straight and impressive as always, one hand resting atop his cane at his side and other holding a mug. At the sight of his robes and weapon, he frowned and spoke, "I can assure you that your _weapon_ is quite unnecessary, Mister Arc. This is Beacon. We're all allies here."

"Is that why my teammate called for help?"

"Did she, now?" Ozpin asked, raising an eyebrow and meeting his eyes searchingly. Taking a sip of his drink and turning his gaze to it pensively, he added off-handedly. "Odd, that. She's in no danger here at Beacon. At least, that I know of."

"Hmph." He eyed the cane but any thoughts of actually _fighting_ were quickly and easily banished. He couldn't face down the headmaster and for all he'd brought his saber, he hadn't come expecting a _fight_. At least, not one he could win. Instead, he explained, as politely as he could manage, "Pyr asked for my help with something. Not a _fight_, but something she would only say was important. At least over messenger."

"Hm. I suppose that does make a bit more sense, with your explanation. Still..." His eyes flicked up to the sheath holding his weapon again and he mused, smiling innocently all the while, "If you suspected she was in danger, you could have alerted staff. Further, you would be armed _and_ armored. Yet you lack your armor."

"The weapon is comforting." He lied easily, the skill - and it _was_ a skill - ingrained in him from his time under Instructor. For a Sith, deceit was as much a weapon as a lightsaber or, if he ever got there, Lightning. "I only brought it for comfort, so I didn't see a real _need_ to get my armor strapped on." After a moment, he added, "Sir."

"So polite." The man smiled, chuckling under his breath and shaking his mug, watching the contents stir inside the porcelain mug. After a moment, with a casual sort of speed and consideration, he fished his Scroll out of his pocket and flicked it open. As if reading from a shopping list he recited, "Twenty minutes ago, J. Arc requisitioned additional ammunition supplies for a training venture. Five minutes later, J. Arc requisitioned two camping packs and a week's worth of rations."

"Just regular supplies for missions or whatever, Sir." He lied just as smoothly, clasping his hands behind his waist in the classic 'at ease' that had similarly been drilled into him. Eyes narrowing in challenge, he explained the lie carefully, "I read that being stocked ahead was good practice, Sir." He shrugged for effect, "I figured I should get started."

"Mhm." The wizened man nodded, "And I suppose it's mere convenience that this all happened _after_ she contacted you?"

"Coincidence." He shrugged, forcing a polite little laugh for added effect. "They _do_ happen sometimes, you know, Headmaster."

"Quite right they do, J. Arc." He chuckled at the referential way of using his name and turned his gaze back on his Scroll meaningfully, one eyebrow raised in question. In that same voice as before, he spoke, loud and clear, "J. Arc requested transport to Vale to be available in the evening, since redacted due to him cancelling his-"

"I'm planning on taking Pyrrha into Vale to see a movie." He lied quickly, cutting the man off and smiling widely. Ozpin raised his eyebrow and he answered the obvious, if unasked, question, "I cancelled because I didn't want to presume that she'd _want_ to go and put her out. She's the type that she'd go if she thought I wanted to, even if _she_ didn't."

"Yes, she is. A very honorable young woman, a Huntress in the making if I have ever seen one in my long years. A good, _honest_ person. Unlike you, it seems." He met his eyes and the young warrior flinched at the tremor that ran through the Force and into him. Like the wave berths of a great ship sailing by, almost, with its waves washing against him far and away enough not to drag him down. "Do _not_ lie to me, Mister Arc, when I entrust to you a secret of the world's safety. I will not tolerate you endangering all that we hold dear for petty lying."

"The _world's_-"

"The truth, if you please." The man cut in, taking long strides towards him, his cane clacking threateningly every step of the way. Face to face, and taller than him if only slightly, the Headmaster stared down at him, "If I am to trust you with the whole truth of such delicate things, then _you_ must be honest with me Mister Arc. We have to trust each other."

"Trust is _earned_, Sir." And never demanded except by people who couldn't think of any other way to get it. Or who lacked _time_ to. Concerned for more than just the old man, Jaune started to ask, "Headmaster, what is going-"

"I gave you the opportunity to get your family out of poverty that had stricken them, which almost cost your sister her life." He pointed out mutedly, in the same 'matter of fact' kind of tone someone might about the weather. "Which _did_ cost her her arm, if I recall."

"How dare you-" Jaune bristled but the man cut him off with a raised hang in a request for silence. A request Jaune granted, for reasons he couldn't properly place, waving a hand for him to continue, "Go ahead."

"Thank you." The man nodded and smiled disarmingly, stepping back a pace in a gesture of peace. "I have put myself out of a lot to get you to where you wished to be, and I don't just mean Lien. To both our benefits, of course. And I am not trying to coerce you into doing anything for some feeling of _debt_, either, so you are aware."

"Then why bring it up?" And, regardless of his _stated_ intent, threaten him with it. Ozpin's support had brought them free of the mire they had found themselves in and, implicitly, he could see them mired once more if he so wished.

"Trust." He answered simply, turning and walking to the elevator, now. As he slotted his card in to demand its immediate appearance, he went on. Sounding friendly and amicable all the while, yet also somehow _tired_. Like the whole effort was rote and trite, and he was simply going through it, like a man brushing his teeth while half asleep. "I believe that after so much time, effort and goodwill, you should trust me enough not to lie. And not to prepare escape measures, of course, as though the threat of death lies behind each door."

"I didn't-"

"No armor so you could run faster rather than fight. Camping supplies to hide in the forest and rations for food until you supplied yourself better." Ozpin cut him off, smiling peacefully as always but watching him with hard, sharp eyes. "And your weapon in case you needed to defend yourself. Your glaive would be useless in helping you escape trained Hunters, but your saber would burn through Aura and melt droids easily."

"...Pyrrha sounded panicked." He explained, opting for half of the truth and hoping he would buy it. Ozpin hummed, turning to look over his shoulder at him. A silent prompt for him to continue, he guessed, "I was going to get the Bullhead in case we needed to escape, but I cancelled it so no one would notice, as successful as _that_ was. The supplies are partially just me being paranoid and, you know, keeping supplied in case anything happens."

"Such as?"

"Grimm attack on Vale? Terrorist attack? An asteroid strike? The rising of the damn dead?" He was over-selling it a bit, but the art of deceit taught that sometimes the more ostentatious and unbelievable story would sell better than a more believable one. And besides, he could freely and honestly admit, "I'm just paranoid like that, Headmaster. You never know when you'll need ammunition, or camping supplies, or what have you."

"Quite. A touch of paranoia is good in our line of work." Whether Ozpin _believed him_, though, Jaune couldn't be sure. At the very least he didn't sense any suspicion coming off of the man. Instead, his was a place of odd serenity. Almost _manicured_, in a way that he couldn't understand. Regardless, the doors slid open, and Ozpin ushered him into the lift, "Please, after you, Mister Arc."

"Sure." Inside, he leaned against the back of the elevator, turned to the side a bit so his sheath didn't prod him uncomfortably. Ozpin joined him and the doors closed but, off enough, he didn't press a button. Instead, it moved on its own, _descending_ rather than _ascending_ as he'd expected. "We're going _down_?"

"Yes."

"I wasn't _aware_ there was a down." And that layered with everything else had his hackles up, to say the least.

"No one is. By design, that is." The man admitted with a small, curt nod and smile, turning to meet his eyes. "The elevator is serviced by drones or specialists under my ally, James', personal auspices. The Vault itself is only serviced by drones, under my or the Headmistress' personal supervision and control. None are allowed down here at all without one of use, either, aside from Qrow."

"Qrow…?" The name tickled at his memory oddly, for a long moment. Something distant, nearly buried under a mountain of more important information. Finally, he blinked, "_Ruby's uncle_?!"

"You know of him then?"

"She's mentioned him." Once or twice, and only in passing. He recognized the _name_ more than anything, really, but that was enough to have his interest. Especially since he knew she'd been let in by _Ozpin_, who he now came to find had connections to her _uncle_. "What does Ruby have to do with any of this, Ozpin?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Because _you_ let her in early." And now he was suspicious, but the man only chuckled and waved his concerns off with a hand.

"She's merely a talented young woman with a good eye for our work. In a couple of years, she would have in all likelihood been here regardless. I saw a good chance to invest in the future, though, when she interceded against Torchwick. And the rest, as they say..." He shrugged and Jaune had to grimace and nod. Even if he was still suspicious of the situation, he didn't have anything he could _accuse_ him of exactly. After a moment, the doors slid open and, conscious of his suspicion or not, Ozpin waved him forward, smiling. "Welcome to Beacon's Vault, Mister Arc. Few get to see it."

"Yeah…" The secrecy made _that _obvious.

The Vault itself was long and high, with vaulted ceilings supported by what had to ancient brick working judging from how the lights and electrical wiring had been put in. Massive rods speared into the rocks as anchors every few feet, with wires spanning between them like massive arteries. From the wire-made arteries and spindling, cable-veins both, round, fluorescent lights hung, casting light down on the distant floor. Wall sconces rested on each pillar as well, combining with the lights above to at least keep the room well-lit enough to see, even if it was a bit gloomy.

As he followed the Headmaster, they passed recesses with heavy vault doors set back and away from the main walkway. Each was labeled in ways he couldn't understand, such as 'N-1-SF', and Ozpin tutted when he saw him looking, "Please, Mister Arc, now is not the time for snooping."

"Not like I can see anything _worth_ anything…"

"The point stands." The man grunted, leading him further along. Jaune could only shrug and follow him, listening to the man explain, "Beacon's Vault holds many secrets, young man. And I would appreciate being allowed to keep them to myself. There are those who would be interested even in just my rather… Esoteric, shall we say, designations for some of the things down here."

"I guess…" Regardless, he heard the quiet chatter of several people and looked past the headmaster and ahead of them.

"General James Ironwood of Atlas, the Council and the army both, and Qrow Branwen." Ozpin introduced them as they reached the group, the older members of it moving away from the machine to meet him. He paid them little attention, though, too transfixed by the woman sleeping in one of the… Pods. Ozpin, seeing this, chuckled and introduced her as well, "And _this_ is, or was, I suppose, Amber Tomber."

"She's in pain." He murmured, the sensation rolling off her almost violently. Bandages were wrapped around her sternum and, though she lay still, her eyes would occasionally pinch in pain and her fingers would flex. His eyes turned to the machine beside her, which Pyrrha was also staring at, and guessed, "You're keeping her under."

"For her own benefit, yes." The general answered, standing stock still with his hands clasped behind his back. Every part the classic soldier, to his eyes. "She was badly wounded in an attack, and can't be helped. So we keep her catatonic, more or less, rather than make her languish."

"A mercy." Pyrrha murmured, catching his eye as she turned around. "A small one, though."

"Yeah, a _mercy_." The dark-haired man ground out, stepping past him and moving to the wall. Leaning against it, he slid to the floor, one knee against his chest. Staring at the floor, he fished out a little flask to sip from, staring at it and murmuring, "_Mercy_ woulda been gettin' to her before she wound up a vegetable."

"He was meant to protect her." Ozpin explained when he turned a curious look on him, searching for answers. Frowning, he finished, "Alas that Amber was so free-spirited. She evaded him and was ambushed before Qrow could catch up to her. Still, he blames himself for it."

"_He_," Qrow snapped, "is also here still, you know, Oz."

"And I think you need some air." The headmistress chided gently, moving across the room to him and offering him a hand up. "Come, Qrow. Let's head to the office to catch a good view and some fresh air. Being down here isn't good for you."

"I'm not made o' glass, damn it." Regardless, though, he let her tug him up and followed the woman out and away, towards the elevator.

"He's hard on himself." Ozpin sighed once they were out of ear-shot, turning back to the young students as Pyrrha stepped to his side. From her he sensed a veritable _mountain_ of anxiety and fear, the girl stepping close enough their arms touched and, from what he could feel, calming for it. Why, he was sure he was about to find out as the Headmaster turned to him with a tired, dry sigh, "Well, I suppose that's enough avoiding the conversation then. Now, shall we get to the matter at hand? It's a lot to take in, as Miss Nikos can attest, so if you would prefer to retire to my office..."

Jaunenodded and folded his arms across his chest, "You'd be surprised how much I can take in, Headmaster. Just tell me what's going on."

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"And so while we can't risk letting her pass naturally or simply… Well, that is..." Ozpin paused, lips pursed and searching for the right words. After a heartbeat he sighed, shook his head, and offered weakly, "Well, we can't simply _end_ her ourselves, as dark as it sounds, and let the powers go to her killer. Instead, we can transfer her powers."

"Or, more specifically," Ironwood interrupted, "we can transfer what those powers are _connected to_."

"Her Aura. You want to give her Amber's Aura and with it her powers..." He murmured, earning a nod and looking at the strange machine in a new light.

At least now he understood why a machine made for one wounded girl had _two pods_ on it. And though the Sith teachings taught that any means to greater power was just, and he could even see reasoning from the Jedi side of things to give her peace, to steal someone's Aura was…

"This is… This is _wrong_." Pyrrha said it for him, hugging herself and shaking her head beside him, watching the girl shift in her drug induced sleep. Turning her back on the woman and facing her elders with Jaune at her side, she almost _snarled_, shoulders rigid and eyes harder than he'd ever seen before. "You'd rip her very _soul_ apart to save your control over this strange power?"

"It's not so simple, Miss Nikos." Ozpin said, eyes soft and voice mournful as he looked between the two. Consolingly, he tried to explain, "These powers are important. A nation, or faction, with them could alter the state of the world at large. Just imagine a group of radicals, or a warrish state, with the power to rain lightning and fire down upon their foes."

"Or a dictator trying to impose martial law and control, able to crush dissent with magical firepower." Ironwood added quickly, stepping up beside his peer and forming what was, at least visually, a unified front for the argument. Consciously, he joined Pyrrha, meeting the man's gaze beside her in the same wall. Turning his gaze back to her, the general went on, "This is done to ensure order and peace. This kind of power _cannot_ fall into the hands of the kinds of people who would do something like this."

"Ambush and murder." Ozpin added, shaking his head, "These are not the tactics which speak to anyone of _good_ character."

"I'd ambush and murder someone if I had to." Jaune stepped in to argue, shaking his head at the man's simplistic projection of morals. "The dictator you mentioned, for example. Or the people who did _this_," he gestured to the maimed woman, "are people I would gladly catch out and murder, ambush or otherwise."

"A good thing _you_ are not the candidate then." Ironwood countered, "If you would do something like this."

"Yes, because the kinds of people who would rip the _soul_ out of a person are the best judges of moral-" He was cut off as the Mistralian took his hand and squeezed it, turning to look at her. Face stony and eyes staring at nothing, she turned to him and shook her head. Sighing, he nodded and turned back to them, "I won't debate with you about morality, though. That isn't what we're here for."

"Tell us what you want, please, Sirs." Pyrrha prompted instead, voice quiet. A mask he knew well, that concealed her anger at a thing when she felt she ought to. Still, he could _feel_ the hurricane that was Pyrrha Nikos, whipping up the Force around them. "I asked Jaune here to hear everything you had to say and then hear what you want us to do. And, preferably, _why_."

"From both of us." He added, before either of the men could speak. Squeezing her hand, he added, forcefully, "Pyrrha is my partner and one of my best friends. Whatever she gets into, I wanna be there to help her."

"Like a true partner and Huntsman ought to." Ozpin complimented, bowing his head slightly in a way that told Jaune he'd just gone up in his estimations. Taking a sip from his mug of what _had_ to be cold coffee, the man sighed contentedly and explained, "We would like Miss Nikos to undergo the Aura transfer procedure. I won't lie, it _will_ be painful, but it is perfectly safe. It's been… Tested."

"Tested how?"

"Classified, I'm afraid." Ironwood answered her, shaking his head and smiling softly. "And not my secrets to tell, even if I wanted to. I _can_ promise, in the interests of cooperation, to ask _them_ for permission to tell you though."

"After that is said and done, Qrow will be assigned to shadow you in a way unique to his… Talents." Ozpin went on, gesturing to himself with a small smile, "Further, I will _personally_ train you and your team, who will be made aware of the situation at your discretion, so you may all be best protected. James has also agreed to gift you technology for weapon and armor upgrades, as well as the assets of his military as you need them."

"Within reason." Ironwood added with a chuckle, "I can't give you a _fleet _or anything, but if you asked, I could assign units to help you or your friends with missions. Extra defenses for Ansel, perhaps? _That_ I could make a reason for a dedicated carrier at least for."

Defenses for his home, better training, equipment they likely would _never_ be able to afford, and friends in the highest of places… If he was seeking power and influence like one would seek _coal_, he just struck gold. And the motherlode of it, too. They were even offering better protection for Pyrrha, in the form of a veteran Hunstman - drunk as he was - and military soldiers right out of Atlas. And yet, his suspicion only rose with each offer of gifts and support.

'_But why?'_ He wondered, turning to look up at the bandaged, unconscious woman. His eyes lingered on her chest for a long moment, and he wondered.

"That's an amazing-"

"What hurt her?" He asked, giving Pyrrha an apologetic look as he turned back to look at the two men. Ozpin's brow rose and Jaune nodded his head back at her, "Her chest. She's got bandages wrapped around it. Which tells me that _whatever_ was done to her, she was wounded at some point."

"Indeed she was." The man answered, eyes narrowed in suspicion for the briefest moment. "She had several punctures on her back. Rather nasty, too. Glass shards throughout the wounds."

"Ouch." Pyrrha murmured, "Glass weapons…? That sounds _awful_."

"You didn't say what _did it_, though." Jaune pointed out, pressing the man to answer. Glass shards as weapons, or the broken leftovers of some kind of weapon, _did_ sound awful. But he needed to know something wholly different. "What kind of weapon inflicted the wound? Do you know?"

"Why does it matter what-?"

"Because I _said _it does." He snapped, cutting the general off and earning a sour, dark scowl for it. Pyrrha squeezed his hand in a silent signal to calm down and he took a breath, shaking his head. Quietly and more calmly, he explained, "I have reason to ask my question, General Ironwood. And just like I _know_ you both are keeping things from us, you will just have to respect me not explaining why I need to know this."

Their gazes turned to Pyrrha, confused more than pleading but _definitely_ a mix of both and she shrugged, "If you can't convince him, then I will refuse. He and I _are_ partners, after all. We stand together."

"I see." And was also displeased by it by the sounds of it, but Ozpin sighed regardless. Quietly, he answered, "The wounds were too superficial to have been bullets and lacking the normal sort of scorch a Dust round would leave. Combined with the broken shards _in_ the wound, I believe it was some sort of… Arrow, or bolt, firing weapon."

"An arrow…" Pyrrha murmured, physically trembling beside him. Gently, Jaune wrapped an arm around her, pulling him against his side comfortingly.

"We refuse." He answered simply, correcting himself when Pyrrha stiffened and looked up at him, mouth opening to protest. "_I_ refuse, I mean. And we do this together, both of us agreeing to it, or not at _all_. Right, Pyr?"

He'd have been lying if he said he was worried she'd go against him. She was so damn honorable and duty-oriented it hurt, so it wouldn't have surprised him. And he'd have been damned if he was just going to abandon her to die. He was a Revanite before he was a Sith and, so far as he was concerned at least, a Revanite did _not_ abandon their allies to die. Not to save their own skin, at the very least.

Seeing her pause, though, Ozpin rushed to fill the silence, "Miss Nikos, please consider the ramifications of-"

"No means no." She answered simply, surprising all of them. Jaune less than the others, maybe, but only just. For all their benefits, including _her own_ he felt reasonably certain, she explained, "We don't want this kind of target on us, I'm sorry. If… If you ever need our help in something, ask, and we won't share what you told us. But this is…"

"Too much. This is all too much for us to deal with." Jaune finished for her, the girl calming and stepping free of his hug. Now the decision had been made, he sensed a lot of her anxiety fading away. The storm that was _her_ ebbed quickly, until she was barely a stiff breeze blowing over the ocean. Seeing the two men stunned, and Ironwood growing angry, he asked, "May we be excused now, Headmaster?"

The man nodded and waved them off, displeased to be sure but unwilling to try and force the matter. He could understand why he'd be upset, after everything. And Pyrrha was talented besides, so losing out on her skills was no doubt a painful loss. He couldn't find himself to care beyond hoping they didn't kill them for knowing too much, though. Which _was_ a concern, but…

Neither used _bows_ that he knew of, so he wasn't too worried. And he was too busy leading the Mistralian to the elevator to think about it too much. Luckily, the ride _up_ didn't need Ozpin there to manage it. Which was a relief.

"So," he started once the machine started to rise, smiling brightly, "wanna go into Vale for dinner to celebrate?"

"That... " She paused and smirked after a moment, shaking her head wryly. Relief rolling off her in _waves_, alongside a foreign sensation he couldn't place, she nodded. "That sounds wonderful, Jaune. I know a _wondrous_ place for it, too. A bit higher market, to be sure, but I shall cover for us."

"Sounds good." He wasn't one to fret over his dinner partner paying his bill, after all. As the door opened, he waved a hand forward, "After you, since you're paying."

"As though you wouldn't be polite enough to let me go ahead if I _weren't_?" He only chuckled and she joined him, the two turning for the Bullhead docks.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Well, there goes _that_ plan." James practically snarled, pinching the bridge of his nose and leaning on the console of the machine, veneer of military command and discipline gone now that it was only them. Shaking his head, he sighed and, without looking to the immortal behind him, asked, "Well, Oz. What do we do _now_? We need a new Maiden and your willingness to cave just lost us our best option."

"Our best, maybe. But certainly not our _only_ option." He had his doubts, really. She was dutiful and honorable, true, but she was loyal to more than just Beacon. Or him. And that meant she wouldn't be a good candidate for his _needs_. Musing as he thought, he asked, "Tell me, James, what criteria did we settle on for our selection?"

"Playing thought games?" James asked, giving him a look and sighing when he nodded. The man knew that being talked to about their options could help him think and played into it. Straightening and turning to him, he rattled off quickly and efficiently, "Combat experience, controllability, as much as you hated the term. And of course, the kind of honor and integrity that can be proven that would make them trustworthy. We don't want another Raven."

"Quite." Tragic as losing her to fear had been, and as deeply as he felt the wound, he had to put it aside for now. "There is a young woman currently attending Beacon with a _deep_ need in her to atone for past actions. Not to mention several _years_ of real world combat experience. And integrity well-proven."

"...I already hate this." Ironwood sighed, shaking his head and then nodding. "Very well. Shall I start the vetting process on the Belladonna girl?"

"Yes." He had faith in the young former terrorist, but one could never be too cautious.

And there was a non-zero chance that she _could_ be a mole, or be tempted back to the White Fang. If she were honest, though, then she would appreciate their vetting process. And the opportunity being offered to her to make right what she'd done in the past. At his consent, the man turned to leave, to do the vetting that needed to be done. Which left him wholly alone, with the gentle sounds of the machine keeping the broken Maiden alive all that broke the silence.

Resting a hand on the console, he looked at the woman and sighed, feeling the years weigh on him, "I'm sorry I failed you, Amber. I won't fail your successor, though. I swear as much."

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

**I don't normally do this sorta thing, but… There's a story called Outlaw for an In-Law on AO3 that I love by 'my lord she a cactus'. It's fun and funny, and I heartily recommend it. Please, check it out, and if you enjoy it, let 'em know ol' Twisty sent you.**

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Full Metal :**_

**My betas got busy, yeah. This meant that, sadly, I had to vett things out all on my own. Story beats, spelling, etcetera. A second set of eyes does wonders beyond counting for fixing and patching up things. I am looking for new ones on my server, and hopefully that gets BETTER.**

**The team RWBY chapters are what I presume you are referring to. Those were ALL important, and soon enough, the reasons why will be clear. I just needed to lay out those bricks was all and, without the end context of what they BUILD, it can seem… Well, pointless. **

**All I can do is ask for a little faith, and thank you for enjoying.**

_**Renextronex :**_

**Glad you enjoyed it!**

_**Talon Ibn La Ahad :**_

**As always, a lot of great ideas that my lawyers have to file away, lol. I write as quick as I can, lol. If you want it faster, you could always pop into the server to Beta it, lol.**

_**Steel Rain :**_

**Well, shit flew alright.**

_**Kaore Ryu :**_

**An egalitarian is someone who treats everyone equally regardless of sex, age, orientation or in the most relevant case, **_**race**_**. **

_**Argus :**_

**I know! It's riveting watching our edgy Dark Side salmon swim against the tide, no?**

_**Mystic Kool-Aid :**_

***awkward, distant laughing* Y-Yeah, no, I **_**never**_ **meme in my stories. .**

_**Scrub Lord :**_

**I DESPISE YOU SO MUCH**


	26. Maidens and Mystics - Part III

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

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_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

A week later he and Pyrrha were back in Vale yet again, though unlike last time they weren't at a pizza place for dinner. Instead, in the middle of the school day so the girls would be gone for obvious reasons, they'd gone to see his parents. A simple Scroll call to his father a week earlier had, with enough explanation on what had gone on for the last few weeks or so, been enough to get him to fly into the city. An equally simple call to Ozpin, who had given them a personal number for their promise of support, had gotten them cleared from classes as well. Although he demanded they keep up with the assigned readings and keep high grades, to avoid suspicion Jaune assumed, the man seemed willing to grant them favors like excusing them from classes for 'training exercises ahead of the Festival'.

"_Since you so kindly agreed to help us, if anything should happen, that is."_ The man had reiterated, ensuring Jaune never forgot that these 'favors' were expected to be paid back. Jaune had agreed without _much_ worry on the matter, since he knew the worst was behind them.

Or at least, as far as he could tell, the worst was behind them.

The girls away at class, he and his partner settled into the dining room with his parents, a trio of pizzas between them lending the room a comforting smell. The kind of homey, familiar comfort that something as simple as a pizza dinner could manage. Small comfort, to be sure, but any comfort was welcome when they had so much to get through. And so much holding the weight that it did, too.

"The Vision wasn't one I was looking for, but from what I remember in my studies, _that_ is normal." Visions, Instructor had told him, tended to come suddenly and without warning. Except to those adept at the kinds of sensitivity that played into them, and educated in the training needed to pursue them. "But it was one of death. A bowshot, a question, and then pain. Like I'd been shot in the heart."

"My death, in fact. Or so we expected, at least, given… Certain aspects of things." Pyrrha explained, voice only the slightest bit anxious at the admission. Whether they believed it to be safeguarded against or not, a death sentence was still a _death sentence_. Whatever she felt for it, though, she hid in taking a drink. Quietly, she admitted, "It feels quite liberating, to no longer be covered by that shadow…"

"I'll bet you are, girl." His father grunted, tapping his thumb around a can of beer. Not his favorite drink but one his nerves needed, apparently, as soon as Jaune mentioned the Force and 'even more complicated shit', as his father had phrased it. Shaking his head the Huntsman sighed tireadly in the way of the world weary, "All this nonsense with the Force… It's useful, but so damn complicated."

"Isn't everything useful also complicated?"

"Swords ain't." The man chuckled, pointing a finger at him and smiling under his grey streaked beard, "And I mean real swords. Not your magic laser stick."

Pyrrha choked a laugh around her pizza that only added to Jaune's laughing. She glared at them petulantly over the rim of her glass of water, but that only really made it funnier to the three of them. Once her throat was clear she grunted, petulantly, "You are _all of you_ villains. But of course you already know that."

"Hey now, young lady. I will have you know I resemble that remark." His mother chuckled, the Mistralian champion only rolling her eyes at the statement. Chuckling, his mother turned and retrieved her a bottle of water to replace the glassful she had practically drowned in to clear her coughing fit. Playfully slapping her husband's shoulder she smiled and added, "And _you_ need to stop trying to kill my son's partner."

"Thank you, Missus Arc." Pyrrha smiled, taking a drink from the bottle.

"At least until I have some grandbabies out of them." _That_ sent Pyrrha into another choking fit, this time flushed and flailing as well. Beside her, Jaune could only his his face behind a hand and sigh. He'd known she would start on him _eventually_ after having seen Pyrrha and, really, he was just grateful it had taken as long as it had. Hiding her laugh at both their reactions behind a hand, the woman waved their concerns off, "Oh please. Everyone with access to the 'net knows how often partner pairs end up an item. Unless _one_ of you is gay, that is."

"We're not- I mean there's nothing wrong with being gay, of course, but-" Flushed and pleading, the Mistralian turned green eyes on him pleadingly, silently begging him for help. When he grinned teasingly, she went even more still and, weakly, asked, "J-Jaune?"

"C'mon, mother, be nice to my partner." He asked, smiling disarmingly and ignoring Pyrrha's anxious look at the insincere tone to his voice. Smiling even wider, and more mischievously, he added, "I haven't even gotten around to asking her out on a proper date, yet. At least save the baby demands until after _that_."

Face as red as her hair, the Mistralian opened her mouth to protest. All that escaped, though, was a keening little whining sound. Laying her forehead against the table beside her plate, she gestured for them to continue and practically moaned dramatically, "You all hate me anyway, t'would seem, so go ahead. Take from me all your amusement."

"I don't think _amusement_ is what we want from you…" Pyrrha only groaned, though she _exuded_ happiness when he opened himself to the tides of the Force.

Had she been putting out anything other than happiness and contentment, he'd have come to her rescue. But once the initial embarrassment had worn off, it seemed, she had come to enjoy the teasing his parents levied, for whatever reason she did. Instead of saving her from his predatory parents he laughed with his father for a long moment. After, they fell into a comfortable silence for a while, simply eating their pizza and exchanging idle questions about classes, missions and the like.

It was peaceful for a long time, being able to just waste time talking about nothing.

"How are Saph and Terra doing?" He finally asked, taking the pizza box when his mother slid it to him and methodically ripping it to pieces to throw away. At a raised eyebrow and silent question from his partner he explained, "My sister and her girlfriend-"

"Wife." His mother corrected, smiling, "You're too forgetful, Jaune. They are married now, don't forget."

"_Wife_," he corrected with a roll of his eyes, "my sister and her wife. Terra works for Atlas now…?" His father nodded and he mirrored the gesture. "Terra works for Atlas, at a CCT relay buffer in Argus. She takes care of Saph, lets her not have to worry so much about money, working from home on her computer."

"She served in our militia, back in Ansel." His father added, once again tapping a rhythm out with his finger. This time on the table, rather than his drink, but the same rhythm. Odd enough that he gave his mother a look, getting little more than a sad smile and a shrug from her for it. "After Jaune… Well, you know all about it, I suppose, don't you?"

"He told me, yes." She nodded, voice quiet but light. Respectfully sad, but tempered by the positivity of earlier. Bowing her head in reverence and respect, she recalled, "She fought in the militia because searching for my partner took much. And in the last battle after his return, she was… Wounded, in the permanent way."

"Dismembered you mean." His wife bapped him on the head for his brusk joking and Jaune's father flinched, face pinched in pretend pain and surprise. He gave her a look and _she_ gave him one in turn, brows raised and head cocked to the side in a clear challenge. Sighing, the man gave up, and nodded. "Yes, she was. Lost her arm to a Grimm just a tick before this one," he pointed to Jaune, "lost his shit and basically annihilated them all."

"And a few of ours too, father." His lack of control and the chaos had made it unavoidable and painful in equal measure.

"Yeah." The man nodded, pursing his lips for a moment and watching him. Finally, he offered, "Most of 'em had families, you know. Don't," he cut in when Jaune looked up, eyes hard, "interrupt. They wanted me to tell you that they don't blame you. Explained it as your Semblance, same as always, but they understood. You went berserk. Happens with some fighters, some Semblances."

"Doesn't make it okay…"

"No, but it makes it understandable." Pyrrha offered, turning in her chair to lay a hand on his forearm. "And you didn't detail that you _killed allies_ in a state, Jaune. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Pyr." It had been a long enough time now and he understood as well as the rest of them that he hadn't been able to control himself. Better training and stricter control was the answer there, not self doubt and self hatred. He didn't pull his arm away, though, letting her offer her comfort. "You all don't have to worry, I studied on what could happen when someone rushes through training and loses their control. The Path of Balance teaches control and discipline, and what happened in Ansel is why."

"So long as you are alright…" He nodded and his mother smiled, raising a brow and opting for a shift in conversation. Smiling, she purred, "And my but you two seem _close_. Don't they, dear?"

"Yeah." He smiled under his beard, fishing out a black Lien card, "Hundred Lien says by the end of the year."

"Oh you're on." The woman answered, standing and moving to a little jar on the counter with his Lien and a black card of her own. She stuck both in and set it back, smiling and adding a green one, "And I have fifty that we hear _something_ by Festival's end."

"What are they betting on?" Pyrrha whispered to him, the blonde snorting at the question.

"How long until we either get married or get a kid." He sighed, smirking when the woman flushed and made a strange sound caught between a squawk and a 'what'. While she flailed and flushed, stammering denials and then hiding in a slice of pizza, he stood and moved towards the sink, "I'll get to the dishes, mother. Least I can do since you bought the pizza."

"Oh didn't you hear?" She smiled, watching him set the sink and reach for the soap. While he worked and she cleaned the table, she went on, "Headmaster Ozpin hired your father for security, for the Festival. Once he heard he was coming to town, anyway."

"Yeah." The man grunted, standing and stretching with his back to the blonde dishwasher. The only reason he didn't see Jaune's shoulders stiffen when he finished, "Old bastard said to put everything in a bill and he'd pay it back. Asked for a limit and he said, to quote, 'don't worry about a thing, Beacon will cover it' and then told me to thank you. You workin' for him, too, my boy?"

"Yeah." Jaune murmured, "You could say that."

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"I finished the review process you asked of me." Ironwood said as the elevator opened and Ozpin led him into his wide, circular office.

"And what did you find, General?" His friend asked as he sat, setting his thermos and mug on the table. Ironwood stood across from him, hand resting on the revolver on his waist idly, and Ozpin smiled. Accepting the file Ironwood slid across the table, "Your arm is hurting today, is it?"

"...It is."

"You always rest your arm's weight on your revolver, to keep it from hanging, when it aches." Ozpin explained, closing the file and standing, coming around the table to the General's side and gesturing with a finger for him to turn around. He did so and Ozpin laid a hand on his shoulder, sighing, "I am not so powerful as I once was, I'm afraid. But I can at least…"

"Hng..." Ironwood stiffened as a frigid heat, contrary as the sensation was, rushed through him from the connection of flesh and metal and down his spine. As it went in the pain worsened to a throb that raced with his heartbeat. As it came out of the connections of steel and flesh, all along his body, the pain went with it and he sighed. "That is… Magic? You are using magic?"

"Indeed." Ozpin answered, sighing and stepping away. Ironwood turned back to him in time to see him sag and catch himself on the edge of his desk. "I am fine," he grunted when Ironwood made to help him, pushing off the desk a moment later and straightening his shirt, "using healing magic merely… Disorients me, for the briefest moment."

"I see." Though the man seemed able to very quickly collect himself, walking normally back around to retake his seat. Rolling his shoulder he blinked and nodded, "It feels far better, Oz. Thank you very much."

"Of course." The man smiled, opening the folder again and starting to skim through it. After a few minutes he sighed and shook his head, closing the folder and tossing it onto the table in aggravation. "Nothing. No archers who use glass-like arrows and no archers with black hair, either."

"At least among the student transfers there are not, no." There was one young woman listed that had black hair and _could_ use glass weapons, but she favored using it for traps and brawling in melee. Not an archer, then. Sighing and noting that his leg no longer ached, Ironwood took the seat opposite the man and smiled, feeling more amicable than he had before. "I was going to stand for my sore hip, but you saw to that well enough, my friend."

"Indeed. And I am glad I was able to help you, my friend. Especially given why you _have_ those cybernetics in the first place." Ozpin sighed, though, distracted for very understandable reason by their lack of headway. Drumming a finger on the desk he asked, as James had expected him to next, "What about our young guardian candidate? Anything out of sorts in her Scroll history?"

"Aside from some cursory White Fang searches?" Ozpin gave him a look and he waved it off, shaking his head. "Not the kind to be worried about, really. She's been known to monitor the White Fang and given her parentage and history…"

"Idle interest and a guilty conscience." And Brothers but Ozpin sounded _happy_ about her having a guilt ridden conscience. Which, in truth, he probably was. Their approach to speaking to her had been angled around her history, after all.

"Indeed." He nodded, moving on when the man nodded for him to do so. "She's also been… Researching old fables and fairy tales. For completely understandable reasons as well. There was a search on the cost to sail to Menagerie, as well, but she purchased no tickets and our monitors report she has not asked her parents for any or taken any out herself."

"Simply reviewing her options, then." Ozpin nodded, pleased by his report that she wasn't about to actually _run_. Looking at escape routes from a distance was a far cry from _taking_ them. Or from preparing to. With a shrug, Ozpin dismissed the fears and pressed on, offering a simple, "Well, some panic is to be expected I suppose. So long as she believes this the best way to atone for her part in the White Fang's radicalization to violence we should have a loyal Maiden safe and sound here in Beacon."

'_And under your thumb, of course.'_ Ironwood didn't point out, merely allowing himself the smallest of frowns and nodding. He disliked the methodology but to his mind, a terrorist was as good a target for it as any. "Beyond what little I have found, she hasn't told anyone anything about what was said. At least, not through electronic channels."

"Letters, maybe?"

"She's sent none from Beacon and not gone to Vale since hearing what we had to say. And," he added, because he knew Ozpin would want to know, "neither has Mister Arc or Miss Nikos. Though _they_ are in Vale today. With your special permissions to excuse them from classes, as well."

"Keeping useful allies satisfied is a trick of diplomacy, my friend. And letting two high performing students have days out of class isn't the worst of favors I would be willing to grant to keep them on-side." Ozpin explained, drumming idly on the table and then picking up his mug to take a long drink of. And, he suspected, to buy himself time to think. Finally, he asked, "Are you aware of the story behind Mister Arc's rather miraculous survival and return home?"

"I have heard the gist." And forgotten most of it, unfortunately. Skilled and good at retaining information he might be, but even he forgot things sometimes.

"Well, according to the _official_ story, he and his father were training in the forest near Ansel. Normally rather safe. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, a pack of Grimm had _just_ wandered into the territory." Ironwood could only really grimace in sympathy. Such bad luck, and Qrow wasn't even around? The poor boy. Smiling, though, Ozpin continued, "According to young Mister Arc, he ran. For miles and miles, outpacing or losing the Beowolves on his tail and eventually being rescued by a sailing merchant. One who would not and could not return to the continent for several years, hence his time away."

"Where did he spend those years?"

"Near Mistral, apparently." Ozpin answered, raising an eyebrow at the suspicion in his tone. Smiling and speaking in that condescending tone he so often fell into when someone walked into the same conclusion he did, he asked, "My dear general, do you _suspect_ something?"

"Yes." He nodded, "And I suspect you do, too."

"I suspect a great deal, yes. A _great_ deal, and a lot of it being to our benefit if it is the case. Though, whether it _is_ the case is hard to establish" What it was, though, Ozpin didn't offer. As always he seemed a man entirely content to keep to his own devices, and not play too many cards he didn't _need_ to play. Instead he asked, "Did you know I haven't found one iota of evidence that he ever visited Mistral? Or even the _continent it's on_?"

"No." He hadn't shared it, of course. Instead of complaining, though, he simply murmured, "That's odd, though. How could that be if he was there, though? Surely _someone_ would know something. Even just a little bit. His rescuer, maybe?"

"There's no sign of _him_ either, General. Him, his trading ship, his caravan… No sign of anyone rescuing and caring for a Valean blonde boy inside the last decade that I can find." Ozpin answered simply, smiling when Ironwood's brow furrowed. Taking a deep breath the man turned to do as he typically did, and watch an Atlesian ship drift by. One of only the handful the Valean council had told him he could bring, on the heel of the White Fang's eerie silence of late. Finally, he asked, "Would you like to look into it as well?"

"I will." He could task a handful of his reconnaissance specialists to search for information, at least. "And the White Fang as well. After everything that's happened, their silence is… Not comforting."

"Indeed. And good luck to both ends, too." The man nodded and Ironwood stood, taking the unsaid cue to leave and get to work.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

It had taken two days of Blake's sleeplessness and _clear_ anxiety before Yang had said something. The Faunus had simply stepped into the offered hug, a warning sign in and of itself, and told her she was fine. Just studying up on things she'd fallen behind on, with her weird and messed up last few years. And when Yang had tried to argue that she _very_ clearly was not alright, Blake had shut her down. Simply smiled, asked Yang to trust her, and turned to leave. And with a choice to butt in and piss her off, or trust her and leave her to potentially wallow, Yang had been forced between rock and _sharper rock_.

Eventually, though, she'd agreed to trust her and let her be.

At the end of two more days of it, though, Weiss had forced her hand. Dragging them to their dorm she'd shoved them both in and snapped, "Whatever this is, figure out what's wrong. Before I tied you _both_ up and send you to counseling."

"What kind…?"

"Yes." Was her only answer, slamming their dorm door shut and _very loudly_ stomping off.

After that, it had taken them an hour to get to the matter at hand. At first, Blake had ignored her entirely, simply sitting on her bunk with her chin on her knees and her arms around her shins, hugging her legs. At the end of the hour, though, she'd realized how serious Weiss was about them not leaving. The reason being that Ruby had arrived, carrying two pizzas and with her head scrunched into her shoulders, for them to have their lunch.

With that nail in the coffin, and once Ruby left again, Blake finally started to _talk_.

And what a veritable _fountain_ of shit that pissed her off did Blake turn out to be. Finally, with Blake on the verge of tears, Yang sat beside her and pulled her into a hug. Blake leaned into it, head on her chest, and Yang asked, "Want me to kick their asses for you?"

"One is your uncle, two are high ranking politicians with armies, and one is _Goodwitch_." Blake pointed out quietly, voice strained enough her heart ached. "I think you'd lose."

"Maybe, but it'd be a show." She nodded and amended herself slightly, "So, want me to _try_ and kick their asses for you?"

"No, thank you. I appreciate your willingness to go to war with Atlas for me, though." Blake managed to chuckle but even that sounded distant and tired. Weak, in the way someone over stressed and low on rest could sound.

Instead, the woman curled into Yang more, so much so she sat essentially in her lap with her head on her chest. If Blake realized how they were sitting she didn't say, and neither did Yang, content to lean back against the wall and be the anchor. For a long time that was all there was to it, too. Yang anxiously holding the woman essentially in her lap, smelling her hair and watching her ears flick cutely every time she breathed. Which, all in all, was _just_ long enough for Yang to panic about things that she really didn't want to panic about. And which she couldn't do anything about anyway, with her priority on Blake and the _literal magic nonsense_.

Because fuck Yang Xiao Long, apparently.

Finally, though, Blake broke the silence, "What should I do, Yang?"

"I don't know, Kitty Cat." The blonde answered with a beleaguered sigh, at least glad they were _speaking_ so she could focus on something not lavender scented. "Part of me wants to tell you to tell 'em to fuck theirselves. Part of me thinks you should do it. Be the hero, you know?"

"Yeah…"

"But, like… I have a dead hero in my life already." Summer's loss had left her a bit more jaded than she otherwise might have been, and she knew that. But Blake had asked _her opinion_ and she was damn well going to get it. Chuckling dryly she added, "And, you know, I don't exactly fancy dying myself either. _Or_ dragging Ruby into a mess like this."

"You wouldn't have to die." Blake argue, not moving from her position still. "I could-"

"You even _imply_ you would fuck off and carry this alone and I will bend you over my knee." That Blake could easily escape any hold Yang tried on her went unsaid, of course. Instead, the Faunus only nodded and Yang sighed. "We're a team, Blake. Family, or I hope we will be. You get into this, you know damn well that we'll all have your back."

"Alright, so…" Blake sighed, "So we tell Weiss and Ruby?"

"Your secret, hon." Yang shrugged, the action shifting Blake's head and earning a whispered complaint for the movement. "But want my opinion?" Blake nodded, and Yang sighed, "I think it's a good thing to tell 'em. They're in danger if you do this, and it's probably the right thing _to_ do so your crazy ass probably will, so they should know before something happens."

"…Alright." Blake sighed, pushing off the woman and turning, sitting on the edge of the bed and straightening her hair. "I… We'll ask them, and see what they want to do."

Yang already knew what would happen, asking _Ruby_ if she wanted to be the hero. Ruby would say they should do it, and Weiss would probably agree for all she wanted to redeem her family name. With two people on board, Blake would cave, if Ruby herself wouldn't be enough on her own to do it. And Yang?

Well, Yang was just along for the ride, she supposed.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Come afternoon the two bade their farewells to his parents and began the walk back to the Bullhead landing, cast in the chilly shade of the city wall's shadow. It was quiet and peaceful, and they turned for a scenic route through a sparsely populated park to enjoy it. Some saw them and gossiped as they passed by, or snapped pictures of Pyrrha in hew school uniform or, for the tabloids, them on their 'date'. A couple fans even stopped them to anxiously ask for her autograph, which the girl was happy enough to give.

Finally, though, he spoke, "You know, you _could_ say no to the autographs."

"It makes them happy and takes me but a moment. Why would I deny them such happiness for mere convenience?" She responded, shrugging simply and sighing as they reached a bench and she sat. He sat beside her and, for a while, they watched the autumn leaves fall. A sight that, laced with past anxiety as it was, still managed to be beautiful. At last she spoke, "You know, having all this over my head… It's put a lot into perspective."

"Oh?"

"Yeah." She nodded, "It used to be that all I cared for was being seen for me, rather than my past titles and wealth."

"I mean, it makes sense." Gods only knew how many people had heckled him over his 'dark and mysterious past' or however else the crazy bastards wanted to put it. Some were earnestly interested, other looking for a scoop, but _all_ were annoying in their various ways. "Why do you mention it?"

"Because all of this… Fear and anxiety, it's made me think. About a lot of things. Things I've seen and done, and things I haven't." She pursed her lips and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and twiddling her thumbs anxiously. Quietly, she admitted, "I've never even been on a real date, you know."

"My parents were-"

"Joking." Pyrrha cut in, turning to smile at him and then turning back to watch the leaves fall. "I know. But… But it made me think about it. About us. Our relationship, weird and shadowed as it has been. Your priority for weeks has been protecting me. Why?"

"I care about you." He answered instantly, not even needing to consider the question.

"I know." They'd been through it enough, several times in fact, for her to know how much he valued her. Taking a breath and practically _gushing_ anxiety into the emptiness around them she sighed and pressed herself to ask, "But my question is… Is do you think that caring could be more than simple friendship?"

"Maybe." He answered, assuming she didn't mean the 'more' of being partners. That they already had and went without saying.

"Then… Tomorrow?" She asked, turning to give him a look and chewing her lip. Jaune raised an eyebrow in question and, tapping her foot anxiously, she asked, "A, um, a movie maybe? Dinner too? Only if you want to try something, you know… You know what I mean."

"As in…?"

"A date, darn it." She finally, quietly squeaked, face as red as her hair. Swiftly, she devolved from her more normal and refined way of speaking into anxious babbling, desperate to get it over with. "I am- I am asking you on a date tomorrow. Dinner, movie, us. Yes, maybe? Unless, um, you don't want to in which case, no?"

"Sure." He murmured, as bemused as he was excited and caught off guard. "Dinner and a movie sounds like a nice way to blow off steam."

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

**What's the saying? If three people know something it's a secret, if four know then it's information? Because, well, Oz isn't **_**quite**_ **keeping a lid on the whole 'Maiden' thing. Through little fault of his own, of course, but still. And hey! Everyone is havin' a good time for once.**

**Never goes wrong in my stories, eh?**

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Maldevinine :**_

**Genuinely glad you liked it. XD**

_**Astute (Guest) :**_

**Their concerns aren't the TRUE concerns, though. Sure, a Maiden, shielded by a Hardlight Dust barrier, could decimate enemy forces. But in reality, they fear Salem getting the power. Once she has one she could very well continue forcing it to transition to new Maidens under her power. Winter, for instance, would give them sole access to the thing keeping Atlas floating. Spring would control information, keeping the Relic of Knowledge sealed away. And I needn't explain why Salem having access on a whim, and Grimm incursion, to the Relic of Destruction.**

**But they can't say THIS to them.**

_**Hirshja :**_

**They did, as seen here. But why call it out? You call someone out and you force them into a corner. Better to use the slip of information - that he cares about an archer - to their own ends, however they can, and not push away potential allies.**

_**Zenith Tempest :**_

**Ozpin cares about one thing regarding the Maidens he chooses. Control. He can guilt Blake into staying under his. Her flaws play to his benefit, the same as Pyrrha's. Further as a support fighter - Blake ain't weak, she's a support, big difference - she already by design stays out of the worst danger. Which prolongs her lifespan, theoretically.**

**Also, I… Haven't decided who is Force sensitive or not, or the Maiden end-point. Been letting the pieces fall as they may. The Blake reveal was the last hard concrete to my plan, for now, though I intend to plan further over the next chapter cycle. .**

_**Argus :**_

**About that 'last line of defence' thing. .**

_**Smokey Panda :**_

**I mean, is forcing incredible power into someone at gunpoint a GOOD plan? She can just sky taser you for it after the fact.**

_**Yavin Yams :**_

**Unspecified by design, though I **_**have**_ **seeded a handful of hints throughout the story I am waiting for people to catch. Some obvious, like the talk about the all of Revanism setting it AFTER KOTOR 1 at least, and others less so. See if you can find 'em~**

_**Lunchables Pizza :**_

**Ah, but Pyrrha doesn't **_**know**_ **they are guilting Blake.**


	27. Family Issues - Part III

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Official Supporters: **_

_**Priests, **_**The Impossible Muffin**_**, **_**Xager the Chaos King.**

_**Adeptus, **_**Private Wilger**

_**Ze Nope Rope, **_**Kaiser Snek, Snekiest Snek**

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_**Initiates,**_ **Greg Gibson, Espa Cole**_****_

_**If you want to be on the Supporter list, PM one of us for details or join our private server for details. Hope you enjoy reading my stories, please leave me a comment to let me know if you did, or where I can improve. Link here, where able to be seen : **__** /2UZncAm**_

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_**I have a kofi account now, too, under this name for those interested.**_

_**Beta(s) : **_

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"I-I don't really know what to do about any of it, either." Blake said, sitting beside Yang with her knees tucked into her chest and her arms hugged around them. She was scared, but with Yang's hand on the small of her back, she wasn't as terrified as she _had been_ an hour or two ago. "I talked to Yang about it, told her everything, and now…"

"Now you are telling us because if you get involved it'll force our hands, and you want to at least _notify us_ before dragging us bodily into an underground war." Weiss' words were sharp, edged and angry, but by now Blake knew better than to think she was angry with _her_. Rather, Blake knew as she watched her pace, the young Schnee was just processing in her own way. Finally, she sighed and collapsed onto the chair beside her own partner, head resting back against the headrest and groaning, "Why can't my life just be _normal_?"

"Aren't you one of the richest people on Remnant though…?"

"Shush, Dolt." Weiss ordered, a finger snapping out to point at the young leader stood beside the door, hugging Zwei against her chest. Gently, Weiss added, "Not the time to correct me for comedic effect, Ruby."

"Sorry, Weiss." In spite of the chide and the situation, Ruby managed a small smile at the friendliness she knew was in the gesture, turning to look at Yang and Blake. "It's a good thing that you came to us, though. We're a team here, and that means when you fight, we fight too."

"Ruby's right." Weiss added kindly, "As frustrating as you lot can be- _Are,_" she amended when Ruby chuckled, "at the best of times, we're a team. And this team stands together, come Grimm or high water."

"Thank you both." Blake smiled, genuinely comforted by the girls' instant backing. "It means the world to me, to have all of you."

"Of course." All three of the young women parroted at once, Yang chuckling as a result. A sound that carried around the room and seemed to warm it, somehow, before she felt lavender eyes on her again. Still smiling she asked, almost flippantly, "So, uh, what's the plan, then? Aside from 'punch whatever we see that goes grr or tries to steal our magic bull-crap' I mean."

"Telling you actually _is_ the plan." Blake answered simply, shrugging beside her and feeling her partner begin gently tapping her fingers along the small of her back to keep her presence and support known. Something Blake thanked her for by nudging her in the side, even if she couldn't keep the anxiety all the way down. "We tell you, and then we make a decision about what to do _together_. Like a team ought to do."

"Well…"

"If I don't take it and she dies, then the power will probably go to whoever killed her. That's what Ozpin said when I asked." Blake said when no one spoke, chewing on a lip as she thought and relayed what the man had told her. "He said there weren't any options as good as me but one, who had already said no."

"Who was it?"

"He wouldn't say." Blake shrugged, "He said that he didn't want them to be called out for their decision."

"That's…"

"Fucking _wonderful_?" Yang finished for her sister, the girl flushing a bit at the swearing but nodding curtly regardless. Evidently, the younger girl didn't feel like this was a situation for chiding someone's foul language. Yang only sighed, though, nodding, "Yeah, it's just… _So _damn dumb. I mean I get the idea behind it, of course. It's so we don't get after 'em or anything, but still. I don't like him foisting this onto Blake like this."

"Yeah." Blake sighed, eyes pinching closed against a wave of anxiety and aggravation. "I'm sorry guys… This is all my fault, as usual, and you're all going to get dragged in with me."

"Complaining won't do anything to solve our situation. Even if it _is_ totally your fault, you little criminal." Weiss dismissed easily, giving the Faunus a smile when her head shot up and her ears flicked anxiously. Raising an eyebrow in her teasing, faux arrogant sort of way, she sighed, "And besides, we're a team, unfortunately. So there's not really an _option_. We stand together, no matter what weird tomfoolery comes our way."

"So what we do is, you know, it's kind of up to you. Isn't it, Blake?" Ruby asked, hoping up onto the desk behind her partner and flailing her hands at the disapproving look she got until Weiss gave up. At her huff and rolled eyes, Ruby turned back to her team's other half and went on more seriously. "What do _you_ want to do about all of this… Stuff?"

"Run away to Menagerie?" Blake joked weakly, rolling her eyes when no one even chuckled. Well, aside from Yang, but she didn't count. After a moment of though she shrugged and let out a long breath, "I don't know. I... I came to Beacon to make up for what I did to the White Fang. And _under_ it, after what I did _to_ it. This would be a great chance to do that, if nothing else."

"A good chance to die doin' it, too." Yang murmured, raising an eyebrow challengingly when the others turned a look on her for it. Voice as hard as stone, she confronted them, "What? It's the truth. Whoever took out the last one took out a fully fledged Huntress _with_ this weird power. What are four first years supposed to do against that?"

"Uncle Qrow would help us…"

"_Uncle Qrow_ didn't do much to help that girl, did he?" Yang countered, waiting a moment for any of them to counter her point before nodding and grunting a short, satisfied, "That's what I thought. Love him to death, but if the last girl couldn't count on him, then we should assume we can't either. He'll be there," she added quickly, before Ruby could say anything, "and I don't think he won't. But we _can't_ rely on him to pull us out of the fire."

"The Schnee Dust Corporation could help, but…" She gave Blake a long look and then flicked her gaze to her ears and grimaced. "But with everything going on, I don't think my father would be… A _friendly_ ear, to say the least on the matter."

"What about Ozpin…?" Ruby tried, "He'd help, wouldn't he? We're doing this _for_ him if we do it, after all."

"Second verse, same as the first, Rubes." Yang groused, foot beginning to tap an anxious beat out on the posts at the foot of the bed they were sat on. "Whatever kind of stuff Ozpin could throw at it, I'm gonna assume he did. And it didn't _work_, now did it?"

"Well we can't do it on our own, now can we?!" Blake finally snapped, before Yang's arm wrapped around her waist to try and calm her. She let out a shaky breath and pinched the bridge of her nose, counting to ten before finally grinding out, "I'm sorry, I just… None of this back and forth is helping. Ozpin and your uncle couldn't protect her on their own. We need _more_."

"What about…" Ruby chewed on her lip for a second and then looked up, eyes hard. "What if we ask Juniper for help? They're some of the strongest in Beacon in our year. And we're close enough friends with Nora and Ren, they should be able to convince Jaune and Pyrrha if we can convince them."

"The previous Maiden was overwhelmed by numbers, right?" At Blake's little nod Weiss began nodding in turn as her internal gears began to turn, and she planned. Something that the clever girl was rather good at, in their experience. And now, Blake hoped, would be no different. "Quality didn't work to protect the previous Maiden, and _quantity_ worked _against_ her. So enlisting more teams is probably the best course of action."

"Only if we trust 'em." Yang added, "If we can't trust 'em, then they could just stab us in the back."

"Obviously." Weiss snapped at the blonde, shaking her head like she was offended that Yang had even thought to add the little note. "So we need to start looking for people we can trust to bring into this. And not just students, either. Blake, have you called your parents and told them about what's happening?"

"No." She shook her head, "Ozpin doesn't want everyone and anyone knowing about this. I… Figured the less people who knew, the better."

"They're your parents, and unless they are like mine, you can trust them. _Especially_ with how much danger you're going to be in here." Blake didn't bother pointing out how dark an outlook that showed. It wasn't conducive to anything at the moment and frankly, Weiss probably would have agreed that she hadn't been raised particularly well. Standing, the Schnee grimaced and ordered, "Get on your Scroll and call them, then. Ruby, Yang, go talk to Nora while the other two are out."

"And what about you?" Blake asked as the white-haired young woman reached for the door. "Where are you going?"

"To call my sister and ask what _she_ can do." She answered stiffly, anxiety etched into every inch of her body at the words. Before any of them could say anything she slipped through the door and pushed it shut behind her.

After a long moment, Ruby made to follow her out and across the hallway to talk to the N and R of Juniper, waving a hand as the door shut, "Bye, I guess?"

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"It's _all_ a fantasy, Ozpin." Ironwood declared as soon as they reconvened in his office, each sat across from the other at his desk and with warm mugs of coffee between them. Outside, Ozpin could see late afternoon clouds drifting by, but the irate man across from him went on before he could consider retiring to be a cloud-watcher again. "I had my agents look into his missing persons file, and when it was issued properly to Vale, Mistral's eastern coasts were experiencing an early, _violent_ monsoon season. The kind that precludes wandering fishermen heading to it, or through its waters to Menagerie."

"And this to you proves that the entire story is false?" He asked, taking a sip from his mug and tapping a finger on his desk. He elected _not_ to comment on how swiftly the man had produced results. Even if it hadn't been more than a few days, James was a judicious man, and wouldn't waste his time on anything not thoroughly satisfying to his sense of evidence. "It's an oddity, to be certain, but I wouldn't say that this discounts him entirely."

"No, it doesn't. And if that was all I had, I wouldn't be here so soon." The man shook his head, smiled wryly, and leaned back in his seat, and Ozpin knew he was pleased with himself. James smiled so rarely that he would expect Glynda's marriage announcement before it on most days. "The fact that my man couldn't find _any_ history of worshipping this 'Force' on Anima's eastern coast. The western does have a history of a small cult of inland villages following what they term as the Force."

"Does it function similarly?" If so, he would need to look into them, and see what he could add to his collection.

"They meditate in nature but beyond that?" He shook his head, "No. No warriors are among them. They're pacifists, in fact, relying on mercenaries to protect them. A far cry from what looks more like a warrior monk with a limb severing weapon in my opinion."

"Indeed." And a tragedy that was. If they'd been even remotely similar to Arc, he would have kicked himself for not finding them sooner. Curious, he asked, "How did you get this information so quickly, though? I'd have expected you would need to dispatch Specialists to Anima itself to get this sort of information. And yet, you're reporting findings _significantly_ before I would have expected you to find some wayward cult of small villages."

"You know Qrow's Semblance?" He nodded and Ironwood smirked, "I have a Specialist with the complete opposite of it. He ran into a scholar in Mistral, who pointed him to a meeting of traveling merchants. _They_ told him where to find the tribe, and from there it was just a quick trip as the crow flies to get to where they were and confirm the information."

"I see…"

"Also." Ironwood added, "The cult is _vegetarian_. And I already checked, but Arc eats meat. Further, they didn't recognize a picture of him."

"Are they now…" Arc had indeed eaten meat, he was certain of it. And besides that, a _vegetarian_ would never be a _fisherman_. So his story began to fall apart even before the addition of them not recognizing him, which meant that they couldn't have _raised_ him. Smiling, Ozpin spoke, "Tell your man he did _very_ good work then, and give him my compliments for it."

"I will, Oz. I've already given him an official commendation, so I'm sure he'll preen with your own on top of it." Ironwood promised, taking a long drink of his Atlesian Black and sighing contentedly. How he could drink the nasty sludge, Ozpin didn't know, but once again he moved on before Ozpin could muse further. "Now, what do we do about Arc?"

"Is there something we _should_ be doing about him?"

"Ozpin, you can't be serious." Ironwood sighed, good mood dying an ugly death at the mere _hint_ that the ancient man wouldn't leap to action as soon as suspicion cropped up. As usual, Ironwood was swift to take action, and swift to get irritated when Ozpin wasn't the same way. Groaning at his raised brow, Ironwood argued, "Ozpin, with everything going on, you _must_ know how bad an idea letting someone like him off without even an _interview_. Much less an arrest."

"Vale doesn't make a habit of arresting people for keeping secrets." Ozpin pointed out with a small smile, "Believe me, James, I know about secret keeping and which Kingdoms tolerate it."

"Are you actually going to make this about your 'civil liberties' argument again?" The man almost growled, shaking his head at the mere prospect. A prospect that Ozpin neither confirmed or denied, content to let him make his own conclusion on the topic. Which he did rather swiftly, folding his arms over his chest defensively. "The Kingdom of Atlas respects the sovereignty of every citizen. Our monitoring program only flags individuals that could pose a threat to the safety of the Kingdom."

"Yes, and 'being a Faunus' tends to be enough to get you flagged."

"Give the greatest threat to Atlas outside the damn Grimm are _Faunus_ extremists-"

"As much as I enjoy our little debates, I think we have more important topics to settle before we get to your Kingdom's semi-racist profiling programs." Ironwood seethed at both the old, familiar barb and argument, but eventually relented. Satisfied Ironwood wouldn't continue the useless argument, Ozpin began. "We already showed young Mister Arc to the Fall Maiden. Any risk he poses has already been followed through, and so playing our hand against him if he _is_ an infiltrator is pointless."

"He has access to Beacon." Ironwood pointed out quickly. "A student's access only, of course, but still. It's a hole in your security, Oz. You have to know that."

"Indeed." Ozpin admitted, less for agreeing with the point outright and more for wanting to give the man a win in the back and forth before he got angry. In the same vein he offered more for him to see as a win, to settle the matter, "Because of the risks involved here, I would appreciate your assistance bolstering Beacon's security."

"...Seriously?" Ironwood blinked, "Are you asking me to overhaul your security?"

"Yes, I am." Ozpin nodded, taking a drink to let him school his features into something more impassive than he might have otherwise had. Ironwood was a friend, and a useful one as well, but that didn't mean Ozpin enjoyed his methods. Even if diplomacy meant he had to cave to them somewhat to keep the peace. And the alliance. "So long as you can be subtle about it, and agree to let me review more _overt_ changes to routine, I would appreciate the hand."

"I… Can have a plan proposal for you in an hour." Ironwood nodded, their old argument entirely forgotten as he relaxed. Smiling more jovially, he added, "_Especially_ if you keep treating my old wounds the way you did the other day."

Chuckling, Ozpin only sighed and offered a quiet, "I'll see what I can do, old friend. But first, I would enjoy a report on this… Cult you mentioned."

"You would?" He nodded and Ironwood shrugged numbly, confused but evidently not curious enough to ask. "I suppose I can compile Ebi's reports for you and send it your way. Rather dry reading, I'm sorry to say."

"I'm sure I'll manage, my friend." And the information might just lead him to somewhere interesting. Adding to his collection could only strengthen him, after all, and _any_ lead to that end was one worth pursuing.

And it made a worthy pursuit to spend time on until the man no doubt returned come evening to review his security proposals.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"My father used to tell me the Tale of the Seasons before bed..." Ren murmured, sat stock still on his bed with Ruby sat in a chair across from his bed, while Nora paced the rest of their dorm anxiously, chewing on a thumb-nail and staring at nothing with wide eyes. Watching her, Ren asked quietly enough Ruby barely heard it, "Nora, what's in your head?"

"What's in my head? Oh I dunno, Renny, what do you _think_ is in my head right now?" She laughed, a harsh sound especially from someone who was normally so happy. Voice like a razor's edge, she rattled off, "Right now, I have the pythagorean theorem in my head, right beside the complete history of the Faunus Rights Revolution and the _Dust damn shark song_! Oh, and, you know, the magical catastrophe that just knocked on our door during movie night!"

"S-Sorry, Nora. But we-"

"Hold on, Ruby." Ren cut in almost paternally, turning from her back to Nora and raising an eyebrow. "Anything else you want to say?"

"Yes!" She shrieked, loud enough that Ruby was _certain_ someone would have heard it. "I have _so much_ to say! Like how angry I am that our movie was interrupted, which is stupid, I know, but- Still! I want to go scream at Ozpin too for this bullshit and-and- And I don't wanna lose another home, and I… And I can't-" For a moment she descended into hyperventilation, hands clutching her head before she eeked out a small, weak, "Ren, I need you."

He was moving before she'd finished his name, but instead of giving her a hug like he'd expected, he simply laid a hand on her. As soon as he did, she calmed down, her Aura shimmering oddly. After a moment, Ren asked gently, "Are you alright now?"

"Yeah." The suddenly, _oddly_ calm girl nodded, smiling as the man stepped back and retook his seat. "Thanks, Ren."

"Of course." To Ruby he explained, "My Semblance lets me suppress emotions in anyone that is willing to have them suppressed, and conceal them from the Grimm. Kind of a niche thing, but it helps."

"Renny used to cuddle with me and read me stories while he did it, so the Grimm wouldn't come for us." The memory was a nice one for her, and brought a smile to her face for it. But that smile quickly turned sour as the mention of stories brought them back to why Ruby had come to see them in the first place. "I liked the Tale of the Seasons, too… Ren told it to me when we were _really_ young, before we got books for more stories."

"It was the only one I could remember." The young man smiled, frowning and sighing after a second. "Blake is _certain_ that this is all true, then?"

"I mean, it _was_ Headmaster Ozpin _and_ General Ironwood." The young woman answered with a small shrug and smile, adding after a moment, "Why would they make all of this up anyway? They don't _get_ anything from lying about this kind of stuff. They won't tell us who the other girl is they asked-"

"It was Pyrrha."" Nora cut in sharply, sounding exhausted but certain in a way that confused Ruby. Seeing it on her face, she explained quickly, "Ren and I both saw it. Those two have been anxious and training into the ground for _months_ now. They wouldn't tell us what it was, but…"

"_Something_ was wrong, though, and this had to be it." Ren filled in knowingly, certain that Nora was right seemingly just because of her own certainty. That was a kind of trust that Ruby was jealous of, to say the least. But Ren moved on regardless of her jealousy, quiet and sure, "It makes sense, too. If people are after the Maiden, a freshly made one would be easy pickings out in the city or frontier."

"But a first year choice would be safe here, at Beacon." Nora finished simply, quiet and calm for her partner's Semblace's effects still running through her. Even if she _did_ have a bit of energy and panic starting to just edge its way into her tone, "She could train to use her new power, surrounded by an army that would protect her if she were attacked."

"And if Blake takes it, you want us in on it. To help protect her, if someone comes for her new power." Ren remembered, the younger girl smiling apologetically and nodding. Ren waved the silent apology off and sighed, turning back to Nora, "Call them and tell them we need to talk."

"But they're on a date…"

"They interrupted _our_ movie night, too." Ren shrugged simply, "And after keeping all of this from us, I don't really mind ruining their date night at the moment."

"Okay, Renny." Nora said with a little shrug and nod, fishing out her Scroll and setting to work.

While she did, Ren turned to Ruby and ordered, "You said your partner was calling someone else for help, too?"

"Yeah." She nodded, "Her sister, Winter."

"Then get the rest of your team and meet us in rec room three, if you don't mind." Ren asked quietly, standing and rolling his shoulders in a stretch. Ruby nodded and he added wearily, "I'll run to the cafeteria and get some food together while we wait. This is going to be a _conversation_, but it's not one we have to have hungry."

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"What do you think had Nora so upset?" Pyrrha asked as their Bullhead landed and they disembarked, stepping out into the chill evening air. Their Aura and comfortable, warm clothes protected them from shivering from it, thankfully, and the woman continued to worry unperturbed. "She was so excited about us going out… Why would she beg us back so desperately after dinner?"

"I don't know, Pyr." And though he sensed _something_, he couldn't tell what. Anxiety to be sure, but every student in the Academy _reeked_ of that with the festival coming on, and the tournament with it. Not to mention the semester exams coming up right after. Regardless, "She said to head to the rec room so we can all talk. Why we're not doing this in our dorm, I don't know, but…"

"Jaune, you don't think they know about one of our… _Things_, do you?" Pyrrha asked as they stepped into the halls of Beacon, sparsely crowded and forcing the woman to step close to him to whisper.

"I don't know how they would." He murmured, wrapping an arm around her waist as they walked to keep them in step. She stiffened a bit at the contact and he gave her a look, the young woman smiling slightly to show it was okay. That settled, he went on, "We've kept things under wraps well enough, I think. Unless the Headmaster went to them about the, uh, _sleeping beauty_ problem we have."

"My, my, Jaune." Pyrrha joked weakly, "I might get jealous of you calling someone else a beauty."

"Oh, come off it, Pyr." He rolled his eyes and she chuckled, the weak joke enough to at least ease the tension. Which had been her aim, he was pretty sure. With a sigh, he shrugged as they rounded a corner into the long hall of rec rooms, and joked, "I'm not a fan of her. I, uh, prefer redheads, I think."

"_That_ was _smooth_, Jaune." Pyrrha laughed as they reached the door marked out with a big, gold '3'. Laughing with him, she reached for the door, smiling as her hand landed on it and giving him a last friendly barb before whatever lay behind it, "Why, I didn't know you were that _charismatic_, Jaune."

Before she could open the door, it was pulled open and an angry looking Weiss met their gazes. Quietly, and _exuding_ anxiety and fear now that he was paying attention to something not red-haired and Mistralian, she ordered, "Inside now. We have a _lot_ to talk about, and we don't have the time to wait for you two to be all lovey-dovey."

Blinking their surprise at each other, the two followed her into the room without a word.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

**So now we hop back to the Family Issues aspect of things, and people begin to get an inkling of why I titled it that rather than anything referring directly to the Schnees. Essentially the 'family' having issues is actually multiple families. Juniper and RWBY both are having issues, the Schnees are having issues, and now Winter is going to join that frackas. And yeah, there wasn't a lot of Jaune in it either, being that almost all the big happenings were happening elsewhere.**

**Sorry if this chapter isn't STELLAR, many of my Betas are ill or tending to the ill and vulnerable, and I myself am playing 'Is This Allergies, Or Coronavirus!'. Seems to be allergies, so yay! But that doesn't help my headache.**

**Hope you enjoyed regardless!**

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Anubis the Shadow :**_

**Yeah but **_**why**_ **does Blake typically run from things? It isn't to flee. It's either to cease contributing to something bad as in the White Fang, or to disprove assertions in the case of Yang. And the second didn't happen in this story, Yang convinced her to come out. So all Ozpin has to go on in-story is Blake deserting a terrorist group to help people.**

**The rest, I agree with you. Ozpin, love him, isn't good at getting plans to pay off.**

_**Demedichi :**_

**I have 'professional' stories and 'side' stories. I thoroughly plan the former where I can without inhibiting myself, and let things happen more organically in the second. This story falls into the second. The setup for Blake is an example of something I planned a while back, but others that I want to happen more naturally aren't. Other Force users, for instance, I want more naturally occurring. **

**Glad you enjoy it!**

_**RC Jackson : **_

**That plot point has been playing out over the last several chapters, actually. Only in the background. It's a paperwork war, as alluded to by the Jacques scene included a few chapters back. I figured no one would be interested in lawyers filing against each other.**

_**Argus 456 :**_

**Yep. I called this arc 'Family Issues' for a reason~**

_**Scrub Lord :**_

**I **_**despise**_ **you…. XD**

_**Smokey Panda :**_

**Yeah. I try pretty hard to humanize characters like Ozpin and even Salem when I use 'em. Hard to pull it off sometimes but eh. Worth it when it works.**


	28. Family Issues - Finale

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Official Supporters: **_

_**Priests, **_**The Impossible Muffin**_**, **_**Xager the Chaos King.**

_**Adeptus, **_**Private Wilger**

_**Ze Nope Rope, **_**Kaiser Snek, Snekiest Snek**

_**Acolytes, **_**DigiDemonLord**_**,**_ **Cheeseberry**

_**Initiates,**_ **Greg Gibson, Espa Cole**_****_

_**If you want to be on the Supporter list, PM one of us for details or join our private server for details. Hope you enjoy reading my stories, please leave me a comment to let me know if you did, or where I can improve. Link here, where able to be seen : **__** /2UZncAm**_

_**Second link here, remove spaces and it SHOULD work : D iscord . gg (slash) kfhkfUb**_

_**I have a kofi account now, too, under this name for those interested.**_

_**Beta(s) : **_

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Inside the small rec-room they found not just team Juniper, but also team Ruby, all arrayed across the couch that had been set against the wall to the left. On one side were Ren and Nora, closest to the door and looking as well as _feeling_ anxious. On the other were the girls, swiftly rejoined by Weiss while the other two sat to either side of their inhuman member, whose head laid on her partner's chest. A low coffee table ran the length of the room in front of the couch and overflowed with pizza and drinks left thus far untouched. Across from the dark wooden piece of furniture a large terminal screen had been installed in the wall, the source of this room's entertainment.

On it, the image of a woman that had she not been here he'd have mistaken for Weiss watched him impassively. Obviously military and equally obviously impatient for whatever reason she turned her gaze from him to the Schnee retaking her seat and asked, "Is this finally everyone, sister?"

"It is, yes." Weiss nodded, sitting beside her partner and rolling her eyes when she scooted closer so their thighs touched. Ignoring her entirely, she began running through swift introductions for each of them. At last, she gestured to the large screen itself, "And _this_ is my older sister, Winter. A Specialist with the Atlas military."

"A pleasure to meet all of you." The woman said in a voice that told him that it was anything _but_ pleasurable to meet them. As he eased in on the couch, Pyrrha between him and Nora, the woman asked the same question he wanted to. "You made out like you were afraid for your very _life_, Weiss, so I sincerely hope that meeting your friends isn't what you called me for. I applied for emergency family leave to be here for this."

"Really…?"

"Did you think I would not, sister?" Her older sibling asked, leaning back a bit as though shocked at the statement. Beyond, Jaune could make out a grey and silver room that he took to be her personal quarters. "You messaged me _seventeen times_ in a _single_ hour, Weiss. Seventeen. And in one you mentioned 'life altering news' and 'grave risk to my future' to get me to respond sooner."

"I mean…" She flushed, "You weren't picking up, and I needed you to answer."

"Yes, I was a bit busy coordinating a multi-lateral strike against the Grimm." She answered breezily, Weiss' head scrunching down into her neck a bit at the scold in her words. "And then when I get back I read _that_. And I didn't, and still don't, know whether you mean a risk to your life, your career, or-or _pregnancy_."

"Winter!" The girl flushed, going ramrod straight and stiff, stammering, "I-I wouldn't- Why would you even-"

"You attend a school of handsome young men and risk your life daily, Weiss. Further, there are only so many options to consider from your phrasing. So perhaps you should work on _that_ before giving me an aneurysm." At Weiss' quiet, simple nod, the woman sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. To her, or to them it didn't really matter, she apologized, "I've been stressed, understand. And messages like that… Well, suffice to say I am not exactly _enthused_ over seeing more than a dozen and a half filling my inbox."

"Nora expressed a similar level of anxiety and need for us to get back." Pyrrha didn't add that they'd be coming back from their date, either for their privacy or having read the room. Giving the ginger a look she grimaced, pursed her lips the way he knew to mean she was looking for her phrasing, and finally asked, "Nora, what is… Going on, exactly?"

"Well…" She grimaced, swallowed and looked to the others for help. Eventually, when none offered it, she prompted, "Blake you, uh… It's your thing, so… I mean, maybe you should be the one to explain it."

"I suppose…" Slowly, she pulled herself away from her partner who released her with barely anything more than a small, comforting smile and nod to comfort her. Sitting up and leaning forward, she rested her arms on her legs and leaned on them, staring between her feet for a long moment before she started to speak. "A-A while ago, Ozpin- The Headmaster, that is, called me to a meeting with him. He needed a… Favor, of sorts.

"A favor?" Winter repeated, earning a nod from the Faunus and then a second one from her younger sister. When Blake only mouthed words anxiously, unsure of what _exactly_ to say, Winter asked, "What kind of favor, exactly…? Is this- Do you need _legal_ council or-"

"No, he- I mean the kind where I risk my life ripping the soul out of another woman to get magic powers." She finally rushed out, before the Atlesian soldier could say _anything else_ like what she already had. Now that she had started, she couldn't stop, rambling on, "I-It sounds insane, I know, but- But under Beacon there's this _vault_, with huge locked doors a-and at the back is this little pod _thing_ with a woman and… I'll just catch you all up on it, I suppose."

"You can't be _serious_." Winter _stated_ more than said once all had been said and explained, turning a gaze on Weiss in question and scoffing when she only smiled weakly and shrugged. Scowling, the woman reached for her Scroll and their screen, snapping, "I thought you were better than wasting my time on practical jokes, Weiss Schnee. You and I will be talking after you apologize for this-"

"Her name is Amber." Pyrrha cut in, glaring the older woman into silence and, without looking, seeking his hand out with her own and squeezing it gently. Heart hammering, he took what solace he could from it while she went on and he tried to school himself. "Weak and frail, housed in a sort of… Tube. The machine sustains her, I think, and… Well, it is designed to tug her Aura - her _soul _\- out of her and implant it to transfer the Maiden's powers into a new vessel."

"So that it can't be fully stolen by her killer." Ruby filled in quietly, giving the rest of Juniper looks to gauge their acceptance of the story. Apparently satisfied, she turned her gaze on a gaping mouthed Winter and challenged her firmly, "Do you think Weiss would waste all our times, and _especially_ yours, on some kind of… Of I dunno, _joke_?"

"No…"

"Then do _not_ insult my partner by thinking that is what is happening ever, _ever_ again." Ruby chided firmly, exercising more authority than Jaune could recall ever seeing from the young woman. To Juniper and Winter both she explained, simply and firmly, "We've decided that Blake might take this 've _also_ decided, though, that one woman or team isn't nearly enough to protect it. Because we need help to-"

"It's suicide." Jaune finally spoke, the words falling out of his mouth before he could catch or consider them.

"Not if we work together, Jaune." Ruby said it like it was a fact and he laughed. A harsh sound even to his ears, but one that was followed by another. Amid it, Ruby tried to argue, "Jaune, we're Huntsmen and Huntresses. Protecting people is like… _Literally_ one hundred percent of our job. This is like…"

"Like our duty." Yang offered simply, giving Blake a nod when the woman looked to her. When Ruby nodded too, Yang went on, one ankle resting on her knee and her arms crossed over her chest. "We're 'sposed to protect people, and this does that. This kind of power is… Just thinking about it drives me nuts."

"It's incredible." Blake agreed with a small nod, "Which is why we can't _let _it fall into the hands of the kinds of people that would murder to get it. _We_," Blake gestured to team Ruby with a flick of her ear and a slight nod to the side, "decided we'd take the power. Protect it, as a team. We'd like your help, though."

"You've gotta be kidding me…" Jaune made to stand but Pyrrha's hand on his shoulder held him firm and he turned to her and then past her, to a sober looking Ren and Nora. Eyes widening and blood running somehow both hot and cold in one as his panic fed upon his panic, he murmured, "Guys, no. We're not doing this."

"That's…" Nora paused and looked to Ren as if for permission and, when he nodded, went on. "Not up to you, Jaune. Our friends asked for our help, I'm not- I _can't_ just say no to something like that. It's not who I am."

"Not who _we_ are." Ren corrected while Jaune stared, eyes wide and breathing deepening until his shoulders began to heave. Ren gave him a small, apologetic nod and then turned back to the Faunus. "If you do this, Nora and I will help you. I don't know how _much_ help we'll be, but…"

"I can break their legs." Nora shrugged and smiled, turning to look at the distracted looking Atlesian on the screen, currently staring at nothing and presumably just trying to process what she'd been told. Loud enough to snap her out of it, Nora called, "Are you going to help too, scary lady? Or nah, gonna leave your baby sister out to hang."

"Baby sister…?" Winter blinked after a second and visibly shook herself to reset herself a bit. Coughing into a fist to clear her throat, the woman straightened and nodded curtly. "Of course, you have my help as well. I would never abandon my little sister to… Well, to whatever nonsense she's managed to get herself involved in, frankly. I can contact Ironwood to-"

"Ironwood is involved in this whole thing as well, actually, Miss Schnee." Pyrrha commented helpfully, the woman blinking and then grimacing as her words registered and processed. She gave Jaune a look and grimaced, smiling apologetically. "Jaune…"

"Pyrrha, no." He grunted, standing and rounding on her with his hands curled into fists at his side. The woman smiled sadly and he snarled, the gentle look only seeming to add to his mounting fury. "We just got out from under this… This _curse_, Pyr! I-I just… You _can't_ be considering stepping right back into the firing line!"

"My hand has been forced, Jaune." She answered simply, smiling that insufferable, resigned smile he had _just_ been so happy to think was done with permanently. "I told you when this all started that I would _not_ leave people behind. Even if it was dangerous not to, I won't simply tuck tail and flee."

"It's suicide, Pyr." He challenged, waving a hand at them all and snarling loudly. "Pyrrha, this is a _suicide mission_! You _know_ it is!"

"Actually, Jaune, I don't." She argued simply, sparing the confused onlookers a glance and then returning her gaze to him. From her little frown and soft eyes, he supposed he must have looked quite the sight, for all he cared about it at the moment. Still she argued, "Things have changed, Jaune. I am no longer the candidate. No longer the target."

"Because we removed ourselves from the fight!" He answered back, "If we still join it, then we're still targets! My vision-" He caught himself at the last second, jaw clicking closed, and breath rushing out as he turned to look first at his team and then at the rest. All confused, all suspicious and concerned in varying levels. Running his fingers through his hair, he sighed, all energy suddenly sapped from him, and he took his seat, head in his hands. "Pyr, you explain."

"I don't think _I'm_ the one who should-"

"You want to drag us back into this damn fight, _you_ get to explain what's going on with us." It was petty, and he would have to apologize for snapping at her later he knew. But for now he was anxious and angry in a way he hadn't been in _literal_ years. To escape damnation only to be dragged right back into it… "I'm not in a place to very calmly explain why you're killing yourself, Pyrrha. I'll leave _that_ fun little conversation up to you to have, since you're so damn set on it."

"I…" Pyrrha's mouth opened once to argue and then closed and she grimaced. It opened a second time, then, and her voice was soft. "Very well, Jaune. If you trust me to tell your story well enough, then I will tell it, whether it is mine or not."

"Do whatever you want." He sighed, shaking his head and trying so desperately to regain his control. His _center_. Trying and failing, sadly enough.

"Very well, then… If you're _absolutely_ sure." Pyrrha sighed at his quiet nod and took a breath, laying a comforting hand on his leg even after he'd been so sharp to her. An action that only made him feel worse than he already did, though he made no move to remove it. In her polite, diplomatic voice she began to explain, "I suppose it would make the most sense to start at the beginning of what I know… Years ago, in Ansel, a young man wished more than _anything_ for his father to teach him how to be a hero. And so into the forest to train they went…"

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Glynda came out of the elevator with wild hair and wide eyes, asking immediately, "Ozpin, are you aware that-"

"That young Blake, our Maiden hopeful, has gathered her friends and reserved a private recess room? From which an outbound call from Miss Schnee's Scroll has been going for," he paused to check his own little device, which was monitoring hers, "approximately one hundred and fifteen minutes?"

"Y-Yes." She nodded, grimacing at his knowing little smile and taking a breath to collect herself. Calmer, and brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear with a flick of her finger and an unsaid command to her Semblance, she went on. "Are you aware of… Well, of _that_. I suspect that Miss Belladonna is informing not only _her_ team, but also someone else entirely _and_ Mister Arc's team of what was told to her."

"Indeed she is, I suspect because of the whole 'high risk of death and pain' aspect of the entire ordeal." Ozpin nodded, watching the whole scene play out through the room's security camera, nestled neatly into a corner where it couldn't be seen. The video quality left _much_ to be desired, but the audio was splendid. "The Atlesian in question is Miss Schnee. Ah the eldest Miss Schnee, Winter, I mean."

"I followed." Glynda assured him, glancing to the Scroll on his desk and then grimacing. "I suppose you are watching their meeting, then."

"I am, yes." He nodded with a small, apologetic smile. The monitoring systems had been a point of contention between the two of them, with the Headmistress fearing a slide into rather draconian, Atlesian policies. "I know you disapproved of their installation back when we did the renovations-"

"Oh don't worry." She cut in, "I still do."

"-_but_," he went on with a small chuckle, glad at least that the blonde woman hadn't changed terribly much since her younger years, "I very rarely use them. And I kept my word on restricting them to public areas like the recess rooms, halls and the like."

"I know, I just…"

"You don't like it. I know, Glyn." He guessed, earning a small nod in confirmation from her. In truth he sympathized a great deal but at least in some of the ways James meant it, 'trust but verify' was a good philosophy. Even if James' went too far, and focused a bit too much on what race a person was, for his liking. "Neither do I, though I get very little say in the matter. There's not much of anything involved with all of this that I _like_ if I'm honest, though."

"I feel much the same…" The woman sighed, though, and as always nodded resignedly even for her distaste. "There is nothing for it, though, except to make of it whatever we can. _Hopefully_ something decent enough, for the circumstances."

"Indeed." That was a hope shared even by their foes, amusingly enough. The instinct to fight against poor circumstance was, among only a few other similar things, an ever-present and universal sentiment.

"Ozpin." Glynda prompted, drawing a hum in question from him. At a wave, she asked, "What should we do about this situation?"

"Hm?" Pulling himself from his musings, he turned his attention back to the conversation as things began to take an _interesting_ turn. As Miss Nikos talked, his eyes began to narrow and his lips began to curve, first down and then up, from frown to smile and back again as dozens of emotions played across his face before he could catch them. Schooling himself, though, he answered, "Nothing at all, Headmistress."

"What do you mean…?"

"I mean what I said, Headmistress." He answered cooly, leveling a look at her that he _very_ rarely employed but which she knew meant he would brook no argument. She grimaced but nodded and Ozpin gave his own curt nod in thanks. "Now if you would, please inform James that his Specialist is being brought up to speed on the matters to hand. And that he is to, without mentioning that he knows she knows about it all, call her to a meeting to induct her into the fold."

"To preempt her growing to have any mistrust in him, and give her access to what they will want on our own terms." The Headmistress nodded, experienced enough by now in his manner of plan-making to guess at his intent. And, lacking any reason not to, he nodded to confirm her guess. "Very well. I'll explain the situation to him, as well as your decision. I doubt he will like the sheer number of people who know about this, though…"

"Yes, but it is as you said." He murmured, paraphrasing, "We make the best of what we have dealt to us."

With a nod of understanding and a murmured farewell, the woman rushed off to see to her tasks. Both those on public record, tending to the Academy, and those of their more secret and frankly more important tasks. She had plenty of both kinds to see to, though, and he felt a pang of guilt for levying so much onto and out of her. But still, he let her leave to see to her tasks and only after he emptied his cup did he stand from his chair and close the Scroll on his desk.

He had, after all, heard _more_ than enough.

Seeing how low the sun was getting in the sky, he made his way to the lift and began to descend to the Vault as he almost always did. Visiting Amber, another of his many failings, had become something on a routine for him in the weeks preceding. His failings, her death, as was so often the routine in his rather unique line of work. And so he gave his victim, for that was what she was given he very much intended to kill her, the only mercy he could and visited her once a day or so. Even catatonic, he was of the school of thought that said that she could still register his presence somewhere deep down. Whether she would be happy to see _him_, though…

Well, he doubted _that_ sincerely.

Regardless, his feet didn't carry him to her pod. Instead, as the elevator doors swung open on the dark Vault, her turned to the side and began to make his way along the sealed doors that lined either side of the Vault's main room. Numerous designations of artifacts of antiquity, whose designations only he knew and which only he could access, flitted by. As he walked he skimmed them, musing about the strange young man that had come to his school.

"I thought you were just a lucky young man who found a handful of relics…" He murmured as he reached the door he'd been looking for. 'AC-4'. One of a handful of such repositories, and one which held what he had come looking for. As the door slid back he smiled, "But you are _so_ much more, aren't you?"

Inside the square room were shelves and crates which lined every surface, the former filled with broken weaponry of _very_ clearly foreign designs. Rifles and pistols that didn't use Dust to fire, strange metal blades, axes and polearms that cut through steel easily and resisted damage better than any normal blade would or could. Odd armor sections he'd found over the endless years filled some of the shelves as well, made of foreign blak, grey and white materials that even Atlas couldn't quite replicate. His collection was vast, to say the least, spread out over five more such rooms.

In the back center of the room, though, was something special even amongst the collection of offworlder technology.

A simple armor mannequin had been built, arms spread out in a 'T'. Thin white linen like a shirt had been laid over it and over _that_ had been laid the scraps of armor. A curved pauldron with what appeared to be a circle pattern of sorts rested on the off shoulder of it, attached by loose and tattered fibers that were _not_ normal cloth to a breastplate that had been melted away. On the same arm an arm brace protected the mannequin's upper arm, which connected by the same undersuit to half of a gauntlet that had melted away above the wrists.

He ran a hand over the helmet, the front over the mouth melted away on one side and _torn_ away on the other and murmured, "I wonder if I will finally find out who you were…"

Between the Archive Temple and Jaune's source of information, whatever _it_ was, he was hopeful for the first time that he would. And with _these_ secrets, he hoped, would come so much more. This armor, what sections he'd been willing to risk at least, had proved nearly indestructible to common munitions found on their world until the last century and a half, when higher powered weaponry began to disseminate. To be able to levy such weapons and technology against the Grimm, against _Salem_…

"But how to get Jaune's help…" Pressuring him via his friends and partner wouldn't work, he needed him _willingly_ helping him. What to do, then…

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

While Pyrrha explained, he sat, quiet and forcing himself as close to 'center' as he could. He was still angry, once again with Pyrrha and the situation even if the _latter_ was grossly different from what it had been before. Still, after forty minutes of the Mistralian talking, he felt a bit more _in control_ if nothing else. The storm was there, but it was like it churned over a pool or lake rather than an open ocean. The forth and gale were there, but contained and locked away enough not to worry about _as much_.

"Why didn't you tell us…?" Nora was the one to finally ask, face in her hands and voice cracking. She wiped her eyes and masked the action in running her fingers through her hair, but if anyone _else_ noticed her red eyes they didn't say anything. "Pyrrha is- Pyrrha _was_\- I don't even know for, _frick's_ sake if she's safe or not or-or… Just why, Jaune?"

"Because I didn't know what was coming, or who was involved." He answered simply, "Here and now? I know you _so_ much better than I did. And back then, we had _zero_ idea when, where, or why she was…" He swallowed and sighed, then pushed on, "And we didn't know who was involved, either purposefully or accidentally."

"Cause and effect, when we know neither is… Well, dangerous." Pyrrha added when Nora's only response was hiding her face in her hands again, masking her angry, pained tears while Ren stared at nothing and rubbed circles into the small of her back. Weakly, Pyrrha finished her thought, "There was just so much going on, we didn't know what to do. Or where to turn to."

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry, Nora." And he meant it, too. Seeing her so upset now, after getting to know her… It hurt, deep in his chest. And combined with everything to give him a headache. Still, he added to Ren, "I'm sorry to you too, Ren."

"It's… Not fine, but I get it. And I accept your apology." Nora gave him a look over her shoulder and he nodded. Once she'd snuggled into his side, the man sighed and said, "I think we should just focus on dealing with the problems at hand. One thing at a time. Everything else is…"

"Not important." Winter, resting her elbows on her desk and her head on her knuckles, no doubt for a _horrible_ headache. Sighing, she straightened and gave her Scroll a look, and then grimaced. "I have an emergency summons from General Ironwood. Apparently taking emergency leave isn't relevant to him, here…"

"We'll come up with something." Ruby, the most well put together of their group through everything weirdly enough, promised. Nodding curtly, Winter left the call to deal with whatever fresh insanity had pinged her on her Scroll. Turning to them all, Ruby's eyes hardened and she ordered, firmly, "To start with… Blake, Pyrrha, neither of you are _not_ to be alone at any time, if it can be helped."

"What-"

"That's absolutely-"

"I agree with Ruby." Jaune cut them _both_ off as he stood, taking a breath at the headrush and feeling them all turn to him. Feeling the Force roil with their staunched anxieties, quashed by shock at so much being unveiled at once, Jaune went on. "Being alone is stupid. And if you _both_ are going to decide to get involved in this nonsense… Well, you could at least do us the damn courtesy of listening to _our_ demands, too."

"We can't protect each other if we don't stick together." Yang added, giving her fellow blonde a small nod. He returned the gesture, and she turned to Blake and, beyond her, Pyrrha. "We'll fight with you both. Protect you both, if we can. Hell, I'd give my right arm for you, Blake. But you gotta work with us."

"...Alright." Pyrrha was the first to agree, sighing and nodding along with a resigned, but somewhat more relaxed seeming, Blake. When the Faunus only shrugged and nodded her acceptance, Pyrrha went on quietly, "I suppose we should… Begin to figure out the logistics of this, then."

And, tense and filled with anxiety they were _all_ putting off for later, they did. Sitting together and cracking open the long since cooled pizza, they started making plans. Escorts to and from various places, arrangements for dealing with projects, and the like. Soon, though icy, that evolved into them simply… Spending time together, with their plans more or less set. A distraction, to be sure, but…

One that he found nice, and one he figured they needed before the _mess_ to come.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

**Update! In the game of 'Is this Allergies, or Coronavirus' it was allergies. I feel a bit better and am still asymptomatic for major Covid stuff. Yay~!**

**Also, a QUICK note- People aren't done reacting to all of this nonsense.**

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Malgrath :**_

**Road to hell, good intentions, **_**excellent**_ **paving. XD**

_**Hirshja :**_

**Because I'm scum? XD**

_**Knightwolf :**_

**I imagine Chewie gives the **_**best**_ **hugs, as long as he doesn't accidentally squeeze too hard.**

_**Argus :**_

**Same on my end. Ohhh the variables, possibilities and different paths that can go down when there are nine people involved in a singular conversation… Gods, but I need an F in the chat for all the stress.**

**...I swear to whatever deities if you fucks start dropping Fs…**

_**Zenith Tempest :**_

**I write Yang in this story precisely how she reads and acts in canon. If she has a brain in this story then she also had one in canon. Otherwise I would be writing her differently. In stories like this I tweak zero character traits that aren't a direct consequence of the premise change.**

**On that note, I do hope the changes I **_**have**_ **made - To Saph, Jaune and Pyrrha especially, and whatever changes emerge further - continue to please.**


	29. Maidens and Mystics - Finale

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

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**Troll in the Reviews-**

**So like Couer, I have a troll in my reviews. Soda something, doesn't matter. Ignore 'em, report 'em for spam, is up to you. Enjoy the story!**

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Stubborn bastard…" Jacques sighed, taking a short drink that emptied the wine glass in his hand in one go as he read over the previous day's reports and finalizations of Beacon's counter-claims and defences.

He'd handed most of the afore-mentioned bastard's paperwork off to various accountants, lawyers and other underlings to dig through, of course. Almost immediately, too, and he'd thought that the end of it for a solid fifteen minutes. Five for them to realize the problem, and ten for them to select someone to risk bringing him the bad news. Apparently, and unfortunately for the now jobless young lady who braved his office stammering like an anxious schoolgirl, much had been written and submitted in such a way as to need a parent's input, and he _obviously_ couldn't trust Willow to do it.

Which meant he had been forced to, personally, process the paperwork.

"Clever son-of-a-bitch, I'll give you that, Ozpin." He chuckled at the words, and the futility of such cleverness, filling up his glass with the sweet red once again and easing back in his chair. Setting one down and taking up the next he smiled, skimming the report and taking a shorter drink of his wine. Sadly, he mused, "If only a _tenth_ of my staff were half as clever, this game would already be over."

And of course, with him the winner, if the _clever_ underlings wanted to keep their careers.

A knock on the door drew him out of his reverie with a sighed and simultaneously shouted, "Yes, yes, come in then. No damn sense shouting through the door, is there?"

"Yes, Sir." Klein, the only one willing to deliver _any_ news to him for the last day or so since the little tart had been dismissed, answered as he entered. Smart man that he was, he carried paperwork under one arm, but a steaming steak and fresh bottle of wine on a tray with the other. Smiling impishly, the man asked, "Pleasure or business first, Sir? If I may be so bold, I mean."

"I prefer both at once." He joked. And it _was_ a joke, he knew better than to indulge in any of the silly nonsense the tabloids often wrote about. Flings with maids or underlings, fun as the experiment a decade ago had been, were _only_ a poor idea in the long run. He was still paying the little waif off… "Bring the steak in, Klein, and sit down. You can appraise me while I eat my meal."

"As you like, Sir." Klein knew better than to argue with him, or refuse a nice seat. Sitting, and letting Jacques begin to enjoy the steak and potatoes, Klein began to explain. "First, Beacon refused and countered the trade injunctions you filed. The end dates for them haven't arrived and so they refuse any price changes. _One_ letter even accused us of using this as a barely hidden means to make extra Lien and said if we wish to use young Miss Schnee as such we should… Well, it was rather rude."

"Oh, I'm quite sure." That headmistress could be quite sharp and rude when she wanted to be, he mused around a bite of deliciously rare beef. "By all means, repeat it."

"But, Sir, I don't-"

"If I am to react to whatever asinine little barb that absolutely _insufferable_ woman slipped in appropriately, I must _hear_ it, Klein." Left unsaid, of course, was how displeased he would be to have to go out of his way to read it himself. Or, more likely but no less likely to make him irritated to _do it_, having _someone else_ go through it again to relay it to him. Regardless, a poor outcome for Jacques' mood, and Klein's place in his graces. "Relay it properly or not at all, Klein."

"I merely wished not to… Very well." He sighed, eyes flicking to red as the man ground his jaw. No doubt schooling himself as his Semblance acted out. "As you like, Sir. The Headmistress said that if we wished to turn Miss Schnee's bedroom activities for _profit_, perhaps we should simply… Well, push her into the _cinematic_ world to that end."

"I see." That explained Klein's red eyes, then. He always was protective of Weiss, even if Jacques didn't understand expressly why. The nerve of that harpy, though, to insult him like this… "Weiss is far more valuable to me than that. Pornography… The nerve! Even were she of age, I'd simply marry her off before resorting to _that_."

"I am…" He hesitated and, kind man he was, Jacques ignored it by way of taking a bite of his meal. "I am very glad to hear it, Sir."

"I imagine so, yes. Can we sue them for libel for that, I wonder?" He asked suddenly, taking a sip from his glass and tapping foot curiously. Curious, he asked the somewhat awkward looking butler, "What was the context, exactly, Klein?"

"A personal note included with a response, Sir." He answered, sifting through the small amount of paperwork under his arm and handing it to him. "And, ah, no. We can't. I took the liberty of asking one of the lawyers working on the other paperwork."

"And why not?"

"She didn't include anything to make it a professional insult, rather than a private one. And she made sure to post it differently, and it reads to have even been sent from her quarters at Beacon." Klein explained, gesturing to the envelope which had been included with it and, Jacques saw, _did_ have a private correspondence room number. "As such, she simply sent you a message with her private opinions. We can't sue that unless she officially licenses it as Headmistress of Beacon, rather than Glynda Goodwitch."

"Hmph." And if he asked he was sure Klein wouldn't have gotten the lawyer's name. He could be forgetful like that, sometimes. Personally and privately, Jacques blamed the problem on his Semblance's influence, muddying his mind for names. Regardless, "Well whatever the case we should-"

Surprisingly, his Scroll rang in that exact moment, sat on the desk beside his food. Tapping in the code to answer he slid it across his desk in a silent, well understood command.

"Schnee residence. I am Klein, head of the Schnee Manor's private services and who would I have the pleasure of speaking to today?" Klein listened with a flat expression that swiftly evolved into a shocked one, then blinked and held the Scroll out for him. "It is Headmaster Ozpin, Sir."

"So?"

"Ah, well…" The man blinked and, uncharacteristically forwardly, pushed it towards him again. "You will want to hear this yourself, I think, Sir."

"Oh very well." If only for Klein's insistence, he would take the call himself. "What do you want, Ozpin, that you are spoiling my morning to-"

"I'm prepared to offer you a contract renewal with a twenty five percent increase on our Dust importation prices." Ozpin cut in before he could take the lead, sounding oddly… _Cold_, even for Jacques himself, as he did. Seizing the man's silence and taking it for consent, Ozpin swept on, "In exchange, you will put the rumor pushers you have circulating young Miss Belladonna's name and face to _silencing_ rumors about her. Further, you will sign a contract stating you won't intervene in Miss Schnee's life until her schooling ends and front-pay her tuition to that end."

"I see." He murmured, "I would expect a sizable amount of time on these new contracts if I am to-"

"Forty years." Ozpin offered simply and deadly, sounding for the world like Jacques did when ordering his meal. Like the offer was nothing and all of this, their talk, a pointless affair. "With clauses for renegotiation in case the market heaves, one way or another. Further, I will approve your request for Beacon to handle a tenth of the funding for security for both incoming and outgoing shipments."

"On what condition…?"

"The ones I mentioned already, and you accepting the offer immediately." The man answered simply, still sound bored enough that Jacques held no illusions this was a surrender meant to protect against worse. Not that his inept staff had put Ozpin on the back foot, putting to bed _that_ idea as to his motives. "I have matters to move on to regarding the Festival, and fun as these games are, I don't want them interfering with more important matters. What do you say?"

"I accept…?" Jacques answered, giving even Klein a look as though _he_ would know what was going on.

"Very well." Ozpin answered, sounding at last something _other_ than bored. If only because he sounded the least bit pleased in the manner of someone through with a chore. "I will have documents drawn up and sent your way. Good day, Jacques."

"That will be-" Ozpin hung up on him before he could finish and Jacque's jaw clicked shut for the surprise of the whole thing, and the gall of the end. Setting the Scroll down he quietly reached under his desk to retrieve another glass for Klein and filled them _both_ to the brim. Setting it down after emptying it, he asked the man, "Did I just get _man handled_ into my own deal, Klein?"

The butler, savoring his drink, could only shrug. "I… I _think_ so, Sir."

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Call done Ozpin sighed and sat the Scroll on his desk, replacing it with his mug, from which he took a long and almost grieving drink. Coffee, for the morning, so not _as_ grieving as he would like, but anything was better than nothing right now. So much Lien, practically thrown away for the bastard of a man's greed. And though he wasn't one to bandy insults easily, right now, he felt _very_ validated in doing so.

"Headmistress," he started, barely turning his head to regard the woman over his left shoulder, "please go and see to the paperwork and financial interests. I'm sure our new friends won't want any dalliances on the matter."

She nodded and was gone, James shifting on his other side while Ozpin took another drink from his mug and surveyed the other in the room.

First and most reasonable for being there was their new Maiden, Blake, sitting directly across from him with her hands folded in her lap and her eyes locked on them. To one side was Miss Schnee and to the other, Miss Rose and Miss Xiao Long as well. All perfectly reasonable and, in a way, to be expected. Even if they were a bit much to have stepped out of his elevator all together. They'd even had chairs for them, _just in case_, and he had happily waved for them to sit so they could talk.

Then, the elevator had gone _back down_, called by someone else that young Ruby had said they needed to wait for. Chairs in hand, team Juniper arrived, less expected but at least _foreseen_ by him enough not to show any surprise.

He was, of course, unsurprised that they had come. But he _was_ surprised by the sheer display they put on over the matter. Silent, flat faced but clearly anxious, they'd set up their chairs just behind team RWBY itself. Like team RWBY, they were all armed as well and, he noticed quickly, their formation put the two Maiden candidates in their center.

They were _shielding_ them, then, exactly as they had said they would the night before. Even in his presence. Interesting…

"Now that demand is presumably satisfied, we can move on to your _next_, I presume." Ozpin smiled, resting his elbow on the arm of his chair and his chin on his knuckles. "Unless, of course, either of you are _displeased_ by the way I handled thing?"

"N-No." Blake stammered, anxious for a moment before taking a breath and meeting his eyes. More firmly she answered again, "No, Headmaster. Weiss and I are just glad to have _that_ over with."

"We just didn't want the added attention on us with…" Weiss grimaced and shrugged, unsure and seemingly _exhausted_ for everything going on. "With all of _this_ going on. Securing our place together and silencing the debate seemed prudent, and something we'd need before agreeing to this."

"It is." Though he sincerely wished that a faster solution that saved Lien would have been more feasible. Ah, had this been a few lifetimes ago when he wore the crown… "I don't begrudge you having demands, children. Rest assured on that. I am asking much of you, I know, and it is only fair that you ask what you need of me as well."

"Well…"

"We want to be excused from classes, Headmaster." Their most _interesting_ member, Mister Arc, spoke next. "Time to train, mostly, and time to get Blake up to speed with the Maiden's powers. We'll need to all be at top form as soon as possible and, useful as it probably is for normal hunters, _algebra_ won't do us much good."

"It _does_ have combat applications."

"Then tutor us under someone." Jaune suggested quickly, "You, the Headmistress, even the General if we _really_ need it. But sitting in a small, crowded room for two hours isn't useful or _safe_."

"Crowded areas _are_ easily targeted, we've learned as much from the Fang's operations alone." Ironwood offered quietly, sounding off-put and displeased in a way but unable to keep the point quiet. If Ozpin had guess a reason for it, it was likely at them _having_ demands, when he would prefer them following orders. "Not to mention the risks of the Maiden's powers flaring while young Miss Belladonna hasn't quite gained control over them. In a crowded schoolroom…"

"Yes, I can imagine." In truth, he'd already planned to excuse those involved from classes. Though if they wished to _demand_ as such, he could affect a different tone… Sighing theatrically he leaned back in his seat and pursed his lips, feigning being deep in thought. "I suppose I could excuse you all… Assuming James will work with me on long term field study assignments?"

"I thought we-" He blinked, though, brain catching up to his mouth, and then he grimaced. With a similarly theatrical sigh, the man pinched the bridge of his nose. "I can task them to scientific endeavors, Ozpin. The excuse for using first years would be that for the most part, _combat_ is unexpected. And even if it happens, there will be a battleship on station to easily _obliterate_ those threatening them."

"Scientific endeavours?"

"We're conducting information trades with the Archive that team Juniper discovered previously." Ozpin answered, regurgitating what Ironwood had detailed to him in an information packet the night before. "Our _hope _is to discover more such locations, or come to better understand their technology."

"Our robotics programs are largely based on the study of the Temple's drones which had been encountered and subsequently destroyed in Atlas." Ironwood explained, either forgetting that Juniper already knew this or explaining for Ruby's benefit. Or, from the pride in his voice, simply because he saw a moment to lean on his desk and extol Atlas' virtues. "Using these wrecked samples, we advanced our own robotics technology, which we use to supplement our forces and for prosthetics."

"Normally, the language barrier stalls all attempts to study the technology or ruins." Ozpin mused, taking a long drink to hide his smile as they got to the best part. Setting his drink aside, he added, quietly, "Luckily, young Arc understands and can translate ancient Imperial Sith easily."

"Y-Yeah." Jaune nodded, eyes narrowed as suspicion played quiet obviously across his face. Or, well, obviously now that Ozpin was thinking to _look_. No doubt referring to it as 'Sith' directly had brought up the question in his mind over whether they had _been_ calling it that. A small segment of a big lie was hard to recall, sometimes. "I'm not perfect at it, but… I can translate well enough. My teacher would be better to do it, though."

"Oh we know. Having the man, or men, who taught you? That would have been a great boon indeed." General Ironwood rumbled, pushing off his desk to fold his hands behind his waist and sounding rather pleased with himself. "What a shame, then, that we have concluded without a doubt that your story is a fiction."

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

For a long moment, Jaune could only stare, frozen on the spot as the general looked on him. Then, Pyrrha shifted, turning slightly and spreading her legs as though preparing to run. In front of him, Ruby did similar, leaning forward to be able to run or draw Crescent Rose if need be and turning to look over a shoulder at him. Lips parted slightly, eyes wide in panic, she mouthed, '_How?'_

He didn't have an answer, of course, to what they should do or how Ozpin knew. Though he did appreciate how swiftly they all seemed ready to fight to protect each other, even if, against Ozpin and the General, he doubted they could win.

Settling on pushing the lie, and testing whether he was bluffing or not, Jaune stammered, "I-I don't know what you mean, Sir. Don't tell me my friend died out-"

"_I ended up trapped under a mountain, in an old Sith Temple where a droid named Instructor trained me."_ His own words cut him off, played from the Headmaster's Scroll on the desk. His own words, spoken in privacy, now betraying him.

"Given the importance and risk placed on Miss Belladonna, after the previous Maiden's attack, we have been… Well, watching her, to be frank." Ozpin explained, before anyone could seize the momentum of the conversation. In the same fashion, he went on, "If anything untoward happened we could respond _instantly_ to protect her."

"I had a handful of Huntsmen standing as students, guards and faculty for the purpose." Ironwood added quickly, giving Ozpin a look like he was asking for permission. A note that very much had him questioning the power dynamics at play here. "Rest assured this wasn't a decision made based on a lack of trust for any of you. It was entirely so we could protect you if the assassin made another move against us."

"And so you heard our conversation." Pyrrha murmured, sounding… Surprisingly doubtful, and giving Jaune a narrow eyed look for it. "And so you know everything."

"Indeed." Ozpin nodded, smiling thinly in an amused sort of way. "Including your informing Miss Schnee. The older Miss Schnee, that is, though James had already been preparing to inform her on our end."

"You… Know." Jaune's panic was palpable, even to him, but Ozpin only smiled and nodded.

"I do, yes." He answered simply, closing the little white device and bouncing it on his palm. "And I understand why you kept the secret. Rest assured, this knowledge goes _nowhere_ but here." To make his point, he threw the Scroll to him and nodded, "That Scroll is my personal one. I have already purged sensitive information and relogged what information I need onto a new one. But that video only has _one_ copy. Do with it as you like."

"I can do whatever I want?" Ozpin was giving him, at least from what he claimed and his little nod to his question, the only copy of the damning evidence.

And though now, focused on it, his paranoia _screamed_ that the man was lying, his friends seemed convinced. Holding the Scroll he took his frustration out on it, the Force closing around and _crushing_ it while he stared at the man. Ozpin only seemed amused at the display of power and Jaune could understand why, impotent as it felt. But it _was_ cathartic, at least, and he had the satisfaction of hurling it to the side to clatter against the wall of his office. And hey, he had the second bit of satisfaction of Ozpin frowning, though he looked more affronted for needing to clean it up later than anything.

Still, he was feeling petty, and took what he could get.

"Now that this is done, I would like to commend you all." Ozpin moved on, the students all flinching and easing suddenly in the way of young people receiving praise they hadn't expected. "To see you rally to each other's sides so quickly and passionately is… Moving, to say the least."

"But your methods demonstrate your ignorance." General Ironwood stepped in, smiling as the deflated. "Rest assured, ignorance isn't bad. It only speaks to a lack of your understanding of the subjects to hand."

"Your protection idea is one with merit, but also with flaws you didn't seem to recognize." Ozpin stepped in, playing off the General almost like they'd _planned_ this conversation out in advance. Which, knowing what they did now, they probably had. "For instance, even now, you sit with Miss Nikos and Miss Belladonna in your group's center. Protected. The Maiden candidates, and Miss Nikos with your vision on her, in the middle."

"We're making it obvious who we're protecting." Yang picked up quickly, sighing when the general and headmaster both nodded.

"Exactly." Ironwood nodded, "You're surrounding them like a shield, telling everyone with eyes _exactly_ who is under threat. And thus, naming their target."

"That's one mistake." Ozpin pointed out, "What was the _second_ mistake, though?"

It took a moment but Nora answered, voice quiet and embarrassed but more frustrated than anything, "We're calling attention to ourselves when we don't need to."

"Indeed. Good work, Miss Valkyrie." Ozpin smiled, satisfied in the way a teacher would be when his students got a question right without being told beforehand. An almost galling thing to go through, even as Jaune reminded himself that he was _literally_ a teacher and they were equally literally his students. "By coming as a group, armed as you are, and with those under threat in the center, you have essentially _announced_ that you are the group I am calling on for the task. And you're saying who to target as well."

"Assuming they see you like this a few more times." Ironwood added, "As is, if you hadn't come armed and armored, then it wouldn't mean anything."

"But as you _did_," Ozpin added, "we need an excuse for it. Missions are the easiest options but, and I do agree that you need the time and focused, specialised training, this favoritism _will_ draw eyes onto you. Especially with excusals from _regular_ lesson frameworks."

"Your commitment to each other is commendable, and your plan is excellent for a basic plan." Ironwood complimented, smiling in a way that genuinely seemed like he was _pleased_ with them. "A few small tweaks and adaptations to some consequences and your plan will be an excellent one, supported by my men and Oz' Hunters."

"First and foremost, we need to settle _fully_ on the Maiden candidate. I'm assuming that would be our young Faunus?" Blake nodded, anxious but set in their decision, and unwilling to once more wade into the debate. Returning the nod, Ozpin gestured to the general beside him, "Very well then. Miss Xiao Long, Miss Belladonna, if you would go with James we will see the process completed."

"We can't go?" Ruby asked, voice quiet and weak. "I-I wanted to be there to support Blake, Headmaster."

"If you wish to, Miss Rose, you may." Ozpin nodded, "You all already know about the Vault to an equal level, so _going there_ is largely irrelevant. Though I would like a number of you to head into Vale as well, to procure supplies."

"You'll be departing in two days on a mission back to the Archive Temple." Ironwood explained quickly, when their confusion showed. "You will be broken into your two teams and sent to protect the researchers there. Jaune, you will be _in_ the temple, helping with our research."

"Meanwhile, Headmistress Goodwitch will be training Miss Belladonna as best she can to use the Maiden's power." Why Goodwitch specifically, Jaune couldn't really be sure, beyond her simply being strong and a teacher. And likely one of the few available in the know enough to do the task. "If we are settled, I would suggest we set to our tasks."

"I'll go into Vale." Weiss volunteered, turning to Nora and Ren behind her, "Come with me?"

"Will we? I'd love to get back into that waffle place again!" Nora smiled, eager as always to go into the city if only to satisfy her stomach.

"I'll see to the Maiden, then." Ironwood rumbled, stepping around the desk and giving the three who were coming with him a nod.

"And us?" Jaune asked as they left, the large group cramming into the elevator to head down to the Vault.

"I would suggest rest for you two, while I prepare things on my end." Ozpin smiled simply, "Meditate and prepare. After this, I doubt you'll have a chance to get yourself alone and in the quiet you so enjoy. You've had much on your shoulders already, and it is time you let the burdens ease. Now that you have allies you can trust."

"Yeah." He nodded, "Now that we have allies we can trust."

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Damn it!" Pyrrha sighed as they walked through the woods, watching her partner grind his teeth and practically froth. "Why didn't I think that he'd bug the damn rooms? Of course he would bug the damn rooms! Why wouldn't he? Fuck!"

"In fairness, none of us suspected such either. Calm down, Jaune." Before they drew more attention to them, out alone in the forest as they were. Several Grimm had attacked them already, drawn to his anger, but she'd not even drawn her sword before they were reduced to little more than balls of smoke and bone plating. "We've all been _quite_ suitably distracted, after all."

"Yeah, but still. I'm trained to suspect those kinds of things, Pyr!" He was furious to the point she could _feel_ it around her, thanks to the Force according to him. And yet he still said her name so gently, she couldn't help but smile. He caught her, though, asking quietly, "What's got you smiling so wide, Pyr?"

"You." She answered honestly, because why wouldn't she? Suffering under a death sentence changed a person, and so shyness had kind of faded from her. "You're so angry that it's kicking up a _breeze_, but the way you say my name. My nickname, no less. It's so… Gentle, and affectionate."

"I-I didn't realize." And he flushed, cheeks actually darkening as he turned away from her. "I don't think about it, Pyr, I just… Do."

"Well, keep on 'just doing' it." She laughed, taking his hand and pulling him back to walk beside her. He stiffened but, after a second, eased into step with her. "We all made the same mistakes, Jaune. Do not yell at yourself unless you also wish to shout at _me_ for them too."

"I couldn't do that…"

"I know." He was surprisingly gentle in that regard, and it made her feel warm in a way. Leaning over she planted a gentle kiss on his cheek before pulling away, fighting a laugh at the way he stiffened for it. Playing coy instead, and feeling powerful in a way she didn't understand, she prodded, "Now, I believe we need to get you calmed down so that you can meditate. Do you have ideas?"

"This is working." He shrugged, squeezing her hand gently and sighing. "I just need to ignore it. Focus on our date."

"Do so." She nodded, "And perhaps treat this as one, too."

"Yeah?"

"Jaune, we're alone in a beautiful, only _slightly_ monster infested, forest. Headed to a special, ideal little pool all of our own." He blinked, mouth an 'O' of realization, and Pyrrha couldn't fight the peal of laughter. "Just enjoy your time with me, Jaune. Let it all go and focus on what's in front of you. Or, well, _beside_ you, I suppose."

She certainly intended to, at least, and from the way he sighed he seemed willing to as well.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

**So I made a mild mistake. LAST chapter was the finale to Family Issues, I mislabeled it. Fixed now, sorry. THIS chapter caps it off AND ends Maidens and Mystics fully. This ends the 'dual arcs' xperiment I was running.**

**I am ultimately dissatisfied by running the two arcs concurrently. It did do what I WANTED, which was to organically advance the entire cast at once, but good god was it a grind. I likely won't replicate it but thanks for your patience as I experimented.**

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**RDDDash :**_

**He is schooled and trained in a philosophy known as 'Revanism', though it has faced its own tweaks due to the end of Revan and Revanism both. **_**Nothing**_ **major, but tweaks exist. Revanism seeks balance between light and dark.**

_**James 317 :**_

***whistles in totally not foreshadowing***

_**Dr Killinger :**_

**I will explain why he has the technology he has at some point fret not. I will also further detail what exactly he has, at least a bit, though much will be left to mystery. **

_**Malgrath :**_

**I don't even know WHY but I read this and imagined Jaune dragging Oz along and criticizing him while taking all his fancy space toys. XD**

_**Smokey Panda :**_

**To be **_**fair**_… **He's kinda distracted atm. **

_**Argus 456 :**_

**There's a neat mirroring happening here. Jaune and Oz both have secrets, and neither is doing well at hiding them. The issue with REPLICATING the tech, though, comes in various forms. For instance, where would they get the gas needed for blaster ammunition?**

**I'm laying so many seeds rn, though.**

_**ScrubLord :**_

***angry plantoid noises***

_**Jaunediced (Guest) :**_

**Except that makes no sense in-character. He wants to protect Pyrrha, this 'bs' is directly in line with it.**

_**Zenith Tempest :**_

**Except that both Pre and Post V6 Ozpin are the same person. So his actions have to remain in line. As to the paranoia question… Yeah, Jaune made a mistake, though even acknowledging Ozpin might do that is kinda pointless. What could they do if they assumed that he knew about Jaune?**

**Also, Jaune and co were distracted with **_**stuff**_**.**


	30. Destiny - Part I

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

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_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

**This marks the beginning of the end of this story. Thank you all so much from the very bottom of my heart for reading to this point. I won't predict how many chapters are left in this, but… The curtains are beginning to unfurl.**

**This end, for all my experimentation, **_**is**_ **the one I planned from the start. And will be starkly different from canon or the best laid plans of the characters within. Hell, the Breach hasn't even **_**happened**_ **in this story. So just… Expect the differences. I hope you enjoy, terrified of endings as I am.**

**I **_**will**_ **preamble with the agreement that yeah, I have **_**definitely**_ **under-used the villains in this story. My bad.**

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

The Vault was cold, she noticed as the doors slid open, Ironwood leading her and those with her into the massive space. At the end of the long room, she could see the two tubes and the machine that would give her the power she'd been promised. And the woman who she would kill to get it, too, catatonic in one of the pods. For a moment, Blake wondered if maybe she'd died. Hoped for it, even, somewhere deep down where she still wanted an out. Some way to be selfish and get out of this scott free, without putting the burden on someone else or, worse, leaving the woman that had _started_ them on this path to get the full power she sought after.

And with it, get whatever _else_ she hoped to gain by it.

Of course, the machine's working sounds, sounds it wouldn't make if she'd died, carried well through the empty room. Well enough she could hear it at least, her ears more than sensitive enough to hear it over their breathing and footsteps. Hums from the working computer systems caring for her, hisses from oxygen tubes and the often overlooked due to how common it was electric buzz all told her the machine was functioning.

Which meant she still had to do this, a realization that had her breathing just that _tiny_ bit faster as they crossed the room.

"Hey, Kitty Cat." Yang called, grabbing her hand and lacing her thinner fingers through the blonde's own calloused ones. Blake gave her a look and, hushed in a no doubt vain attempt _not_ to be heard by the General, "If you don't wanna do this, just say the word. We'll bust outta this joint even if we have to head all the way to Menagerie."

"Yeah, Blake." Ruby on her other side added, _less_ quiet for her typical Ruby brand of lacking social grace. "And I mean hey, I _love_ swimming."

"If you're hesitating now, then running to Menagerie isn't needed, because you won't be in this position any longer." Ironwood grunted, stopping at the halfway point of the room to half turn to them, the pods visible to either side of home where Blake stood. Like a reminder of what he meant, if she thought he was doing it on purpose. Quietly, he drew her attention from the accidental symbolism and back to him, "If you doubt your purpose here, what you are about to do, Belladonna, then you should simply say so."

"Hey, back off, Irondick." Yang grunted, taking a step forward like she wanted to get between him and Blake herself. But with a gentle tug of her hand, Blake put a stop to that idea, the brawler growling instead, "You're already gettin' what you want. You don't have to be an ass about it."

"Yang, it's fine. I just…" She grimaced and glanced away guiltily, nearly murmuring the last, "I'm afraid of what will happen to me, when I get in there. Putting her soul in me, I… Do you and your scientists even know what that will do to me?"

"This technology _has_ been tested, yes, if that is what you are asking." They all turned looks on him and he sighed, turning fully to them and crossing his arms. Quietly, as though he expected evesdroppers _here_, of all places, the man explained in his sterile, military way. "The man that helped design this technology took sections of his own Aura, his own _soul_, and placed them into a… Well, another person, I suppose, given how she has developed. This other person has suffered no odd side-effects of the procedure, though the donor himself has noted many of them. You, though, are _not_ the donor and so we anticipate few, if any, complications."

"If you're sure…"

"_This_ is the first time someone with an Aura and a soul has been put through the _receiving_ portion of this, Miss Rose." Ironwood admitted, sighing sadly for the admission. Still, even as tense as she could tell he was from his ridged shoulders and crossed arms, he spoke calmly and clinically. "There is much we don't understand about what we are about to do. But in the test case, the receiver didn't face any negative consequences. As little as that tells us, it at least _implies_ that it isn't a lethal procedure."

"Still, if she doesn't want to do it, then-"

"I do, Yang." Or at least, she understood why she _needed_ to. Squeezing the blonde's hand affectionately she forced a small smile for her sake, "I have to do this. I'm just… Having cold feet, that's all."

"Well, I should hope they warm up rather swiftly." The man tried to joke, forcing a small, weak smile that fell when only Ruby laughed awkwardly. Sighing, he ran his fingers through his hair and shrugged, "Well, I'm not paid for comedy, so I suppose that it only makes sense comedy wouldn't be my forte."

"It's _really_ not, Sir." She laughed, smiling a genuine smile."You're terrible at making jokes. Worse than Yang, in fact."

Still, the joke did its job, worming some small warmth into her and pushing away the cold fear. It was still there, of course, but… She couldn't run from destiny, or maybe karma, forever. And so, squeezing her friend's hands, she pulled herself free and stepped past the General. Part of her wanted to say something, perhaps to seem cool in front of Ruby and Yang and make _them_ feel better about all of this, but she didn't.

Her mouth was too dry to even _try_ to.

Up close, the machines were exactly the same as she'd seen before, the empty pod barren of anything but the simplest of mats to lay in. Now, though, the empty pod was open. _Her_ pod, that was, was opened and waiting to do its rather macabre job. And it looked all the more foreboding for it, like a great beast's jaw ready to devour her very being should she dare challenge it. Part of her felt childish for that kind of imagination, like a kid seeing a monster in her closet. Then again, it almost literally _was_ a monster bent on swallowing her whole and ripping her soul apart, so…

Maybe her imagination was a little _less_ than childish, in that regard.

"Once you are inside, try to stay as still as you can." Ironwood explained as he worked, preparing the machine like a man who'd done it dozens of times. Focused enough on his task she didn't take an insult when he didn't even _look_ at her, he instructed her, "Miss Belladonna, step into the chamber. I need to run a last diagnostic routine, to make _absolutely_ sure all is ready. Then we can proceed."

"Alright, I understand." She paused, though, pulling her hands free and hugging Ruby suddenly. The younger girl 'eeped' in surprise but hugged the Faunus back with little in the way of hesitation. Letting her go and turning, Blake was yanked in a hug by her partner, the Faunus burying her nose in her neck and sighing. "Thank you for everything, Yang. No matter what happens, just... Thank you."

"Anytime, Kitten." The girl answered, seeming to hesitate for a moment before turning just enough for Blake to press a quick, chaste kiss to her cheek. Pulling away Yang grinned lopsidedly at Blake's surprise, "For luck, Blake. That's how it goes in the stories you like to read, isn't it?"

"N-Normally it's a knight doing it…"

"Yeah, well, we don't have any knights around here." Yang laughed, an awkward and fragile sound as she stepped back and crossed her arms, asking past her. "What about you, General Irondaddy? Got any knight in you to wish our fair maiden luck?"

"No, I'm afraid I do not. And I would appreciate you _not_ call me that, either, Miss Xiao Long." He chuckled, though, standing and turning to the three of them with a small smile. "Qrow would castrate me if he heard it… I'm sure you understand."

"Me calling you Irondaddy, or a kiss on the cheek…?"

"Yes." The man answered simply, smiling when yang laughed. To Blake, he asked, "Do you need a moment to prepare, Miss Belladonna? There's no rush on this, after all. You can take your time."

"No." If she hesitated, she'd get scared and want to run. Better to get it over with. "I just… Wanted to say goodbye, that was all. Just… Just in case something happens to me in there. Something you don't expect."

"I understand." He nodded, face grim and knowing in an eerie way. Tapping a hand to the metal brace in his skull, he smiled, "Believe it or not, but I know something about knowingly risking your life for the greater good, Miss Belladonna. There's no rush, and you'll only get patience from me unless that changes. Though time spent mysteriously absent, in a meeting with the headmaster, won't do you any favors."

"Right..." And for all she knew, they'd already drawn attention from any of the _hundred_ or so unfamiliar faces that had trickled in over the last month or so, ahead of the Vytal Festival. So many eyes, and so many ways they could have noticed them. Taking a breath, she nodded, "Let's get this over, then, General."

"James." He corrected as she stepped into the pod, pausing to turn to him with the question written all over her face. "I would have you call me James, Miss Belladonna. With as much as you're risking, I… Can't call you anyone I don't trust, and people I trust I offer the chance to use my given name."

"James, then." She murmured, feeling her confidence soar at the ability to speak to him so casually. How many faunus could claim to be able to do the same? Not many, she was sure. Turning, she laid back in the pod and took a long, deep breath before nodding finally, "I'm ready."

The man only nodded and she did her best to relax as he began punching in commands. After a moment of honestly awkward silence an odd hissing surrounded her. Like snakes had been stirred to life behind every panel of metal around her, the hydraulic system sliding the lid down over her and sealing her in with a metallic _thunk_. Yang and Ruby filled what she could see beyond the glass fairly quickly, each laying a hand on the glass in solidarity and she smiled, if only for them.

Then an odd, almost _burning_ pressure bloomed across her body, like fingers made of molten metal, prodding every last inch of her without reservation. Like it, whatever the _it_ was in this instance, was looking for something. Searching her entire body, hungry and seeking, like a fire reaching out for tinder nearby. It hurt, but not enough to draw more than pinched lips and a quiet hiss from her.

What came next, though, drew _significantly_ more of a reaction from her.

For a heartbeat, the burning probing withdrew, leaving her sore and confused but doing little beyond that. She didn't even have enough time to question it, though, before the strange, fiery force slammed back against her with a vengeance. Like bands of molten steel coiling around her, searing away at her and driving her breath from her lungs in a ragged cry. Outside, she could see Yang and Ruby panicking, the former turning to shout something she couldn't hear at Ironwood.

She couldn't hear it through the roaring in her ears, though. And then, as it impossibly worsened _again_, feeling like she was being burned and torn apart at the same time, she let herself scream in earnest.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"She's in agony!" Yang shouted, heart hammering in her ears nowhere _nearly_ enough to keep Blake's shriek of pain from reaching her. Turning back to her she saw the woman spasm, hugging herself and baring her teeth in a shriek of pain. "Can't you hear her, Dust damn it? She's-"

"In pain, I know." Ironwood answered, leaning on the console and watching the keys as though looking for an answer. Blake collapsed suddenly, curled up in the bottom of the tube and screaming herself raw, and the man grimaced. "We can do nothing except wait and pray for her. Frankly, if we _stop now_, it might just kill her anyway. Or cripple her. We can't know how the process will react to being interrupted."

"So we just _pray_?" Yang sneered while her sister knelt to watch their friend. "Seriously? That's _all_ you have?"

"Yes, Miss Xiao Long. I'm deadly serious." He nodded, turning to her with a flat, almost dead expression on his face. Blake shrieked anew as a strange glow overtook her and the man could only smile thinly. "At the least, she seems to be alive for now, and _that_ is not the color of her Aura."

"How would you know?"

"I vetted her _thoroughly_ before Ozpin contacted her." He answered simply, giving the woman's yellow glow a look and a sigh. "I believe hers is _purple_, not _yellow_."

"If this doesn't work-"

"Yang, look at her eyes..." Ruby shouted, drawing the blonde's attention away from the man and back to her partner.

Curled in a ball as she was, it was hard to see, but as she brought her head back to cry out Yang saw what Ruby had. Little fires, like the kind that burned on the end of matchsticks, burned around both of her eyes. After another heartbeat, sparks began to fly from her and she felt a powerful grip on her shoulder pulling her back and away. Ironwood, face grave and eyes hard, pulled her back so that he could see. Then he swore and shoved her further, reaching down to drag Ruby back by her hood and the back of her shirt.

"What are you-"

"Get back! She has the power but she's not stable, yet!" Ironwood barked, back to the tube and body between them and it. "She's going to lose it, and you don't want to be close if that happens.

Yang wanted to argue that Blake would never, that she was in control. But Ruby was already moving, pushing her back and away on instinct, and Yang let the argument die in her throat for it. Satisfied they were moving, the man looked over his shoulders and she could just barely make out his eyes widening across the several yards she and Ruby had crossed already.

"Ruby, use your Semblance!" He ordered, leaping away and turning in the same moment, bringing his right side around and curling his arm and leg between him and the pod.

Ruby didn't hesitate, hissing a complaint under her breath but slamming into her sister. Yang felt her stomach lurch dangerously and she was facing the elevator and on her knees, Ruby curled up and wheezed beside her while her cloak trailed petals around her. A weird, almost battery smell reached Yang, and she moved for reasons she didn't understand. Curling over her sister protectively and flaring her Aura along every inch of her body.

Then, finally, a _roar_ filled the room and Yang saw lightning arc around her. And then down, into her back, drawing a ragged scream from her as her body spasmed.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Once the last wave of students arrive we will integrate more fully. All done ahead of our eventual attack." Cinder explained, stood over a table with Neo across from her and her own lieutenants on her right. "A week after, Roman and those at Mountain Glenn will put some fear into these fools ahead of our real endgame. Neo, you _will_ make sure that Roman knows to play his part, I trust?"

The girl only shrugged, of course, the insufferable tart.

Neo's presence was an annoyance as ever, the woman sat on the table with her back to the ordeal inspecting her nails as though her _gloves_ weren't covering them. Still, she was needed in order to relay orders to Roman with any degree of trust in him _doing_ what she said. On her _left_ stood another needed annoyance, if one with a bit more _edge_ in a variety of ways both amusing and literal. Adam Taurus, scowl as permanently affixed to his face as the sword on his hip and the hand on top of _it_.

As though _that_ would help him if she wished to deal with him more permanently…

"Adam," she smiled, forcing herself to move on at least for now, "will your people be ready when I give the word?"

"They already _are_ ready." The men answered with a small, feral smile that was barely more than a bearing of his teeth. "They need fifteen minutes to deploy, but once you give the word, my warriors will bring the fires of retribution onto Vale."

"Good." And just as good was the wine glass on the table, which she _swiftly_ picked up for a needed drink. A quick sip of the only thing keeping her from _melting_ the insufferable edgelord and the diminutive murder hobo and she sighed. "Once the dust has settled somewhat from the Mountain Glenn attack we will have our pieces in play. Moved in the chaos. From there we will- Gah!"

For a moment, her world was nothing but fire, constricting around her parasite infested hand like a vice. Then it was gone and she sagged, breathing heavily and clutching the limb like one might if bitten by a snake.

"Cinder…?" She looked up to Emerald's anxious eyes and saw them blink. "C-Cinder, Ma'am, your eye-"

"The bastard did it…" She murmured, turning in the vague direction of Beacon, blocked, obviously, by the walls of the decrepit apartment they were in. Her good hand reached up to her face and, true enough, she felt the warmth of the Maiden's Eye. "And far sooner than we planned, too. I wonder why that is?"

"Ma'am…?" Mercury's words had her turning her head, peering at him over a shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"What is going on, Cinder?" Adam demanded, even Neo watching her closely over a shoulder.

"The timeline has been moved up, my friends." She answered, extinguishing the Eye and turning towards them with a wide smile that competed with Adam's own feral smile. "Neo, send word to Roman. I want the Breach to happen inside the hour. Adam, your attacks will follow across the city and at Beacon thirty minutes after you hear the sirens. The three of us," she smiled, turning to Emerald and Mercury, "will take _my_ prize from Beacon in the chaos."

Ozpin had forced the Queen to move her pieces early, whether he knew it or not, but that wouldn't matter. The Queen was still the most powerful piece on the board, though. And she would make sure Ozpin knew as such.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Even when it's hot or cold, the water always seems to keep to the same temperature." Pyrrha murmured a while after they'd reached the little pool. As soon as they'd arrived, knowing the Grimm would stay at bay and he would sense them if they weren't, Pyrrha had slipped out of her boots and greaves so she could rest her legs in the water below him while he… Tried _very_ hard not to be distracted. "Isn't that strange, Jaune?"

"Hm?" He cracked open an eye and, smiling, she splashed a little to explain her question. "Ah, right. Yeah, it's kind of strange. Even the plants right around the water don't seem the same as those in the forest."

"I had noticed that as well." Pyrrha nodded, leaning back against the rock and sighing contentedly, her legs up to her thighs in the strangely neutral water. "Maybe something to do with the Force? It doesn't seem natural."

"Y-Yeah, maybe." He murmured, watching her long legs kick idly in the shallow water until she turned to look at him and he straightened, closing his eyes against her raised brow and little smirk, "I mean, um, the Force can concentrate in places. And from what I've read, it tends to have various results. Some places end up like this, filled with life and comfortable to anything not outright Dark in nature."

"You sound flustered." He pursed his lips and heard her laugh, kicking her feet again. "I don't mind you looking at my legs, Jaune. I wear a skirt most days regardless."

"I wasn't looking." He lied, coughing into a fist when she laughed.

"Is that why the grimm do not come to this place, then?" She asked through a smile a moment later, the blonde turning to look down on her with a raised brow, "The Grimm. Is the reason they avoid coming here due to them being somehow Dark?"

"Maybe, yeah." He answered, considering the idea for a moment before adding. "And I mean, that would explain a bit about them, too."

"How do you mean?"

"I mean what I said." He shrugged, reaching out with a hand and calling his saber around to spin before him in the afternoon light. They'd need to leave, soon… "Think about it, Pyr. Some can possess objects, others spit _fire_, and all of them turn to ashes when we kill them. We think them natural, and they are, but they could be something special too. Something somehow made by the Force."

"It would make sense, given what we know now." Pyrrha nodded, turning and laying out on a flat rock just above water level. His eyes landed on her thighs and then moved to her eyes as she smiled, having caught him again.

Damn her…

"T-The Archive might have information, if we want to look." He offered in hops that she would stop teasing him and stop giving him that little smile. Honestly, when did Pyrrha Nikos start being such a flirt…? "Now that I'm out in the open with Ozpin and the General, we could maybe pitch the question to _them_, too."

"What would knowing the answer give us?"

"If the Grimm are somehow Force-created, then something on Remnant might be _doing this_." He answered, focusing on his rapidly spinning staff, working to make it circle in the air in patterns while it spun. One of many exercises in control that he kept up, sharpening himself steadily as time passed. "If it's a region or something, we could isolate and bombard it. Maybe fortify around it, contain the threat. If it's an artifact or something _making_ them, then maybe we could destroy it."

"Maybe, yes." She answered, sighing and giving his saber a long look.

"What's wrong?"

"Who said anything was wrong…?"

"Pyrrha, I'm attuned to the Force right now, I can _feel_ you feeling… Miffed." He didn't have another word for it, but Force was she sending it out in waves. Along with, now that he'd said something about it, embarrassment. "So what's wrong? If something is up, you just need to say so."

"Well, I mean, I just…" She sighed, folding her arms under the back of her head and pursing her lips. "It's stupid, really."

"Not if it bothers you." He countered readily, calling the staff back to his hand and sliding it into place on his back. Standing, he dropped onto the stone just above her head, the woman only shifting a bit to make space for him as he sat down. Smiling down at her, he prodded her again, "So, tell me what's wrong, Pyr."

"Anxiety about what's to come, mostly." She sighed, frowning when he gave her a look of doubt. "That and… Well, I don't know, really. A certain displeasure at you… At you not looking at me, I suppose."

"I don't understand…"

"Yeah, I figured you wouldn't..." She sighed, rolling her head to look at the forest instead of him. He thought to say something but instead kept his tongue, getting the impression that she needed the moment. "I just- Sometimes a girl likes being looked at, Jaune. And I get that you're trying to be a gentleman, and _Gods_ but it feels dumb to even be bothered, but it feels like you don't _like_ how I look."

"You know I do."

"I do! I really, really do." She nodded, throwing her hands up in the air with a defeated sigh and then letting them flop beside her, one into the water. "Like I said, it's dumb, and _highly _irrational, and I know it is, but I still feel how I feel."

"Yeah, I get that, I guess." And he was nowhere _near_ dumb enough to dismiss it, either. His father, mother _and_ sisters would tan his hide if he did something that dumb. Not to mention how it would make Pyrrha feel. Laying a hand on her shoulder to get her to look at him, leaning over her and smiling, he said it simply. "I think you're the most beautiful girl in all of Beacon, Pyr. I'm trying not to stare because if I start, I won't ever be able to _stop_, not because I don't want to look."

"O-Oh." She flushed, smiling and glancing away after a second. Laying her hand on his she sighed and laughed, "Thank you, Jaune. I know it was stupid, but-"

"How you feel is never stupid." He cut in, smiling at the woman and squeezing her shoulder affectionately. "I didn't mean to upset you, I'm just… Kind of awkward, with stuff like this."

"I can tell." She laughed, sitting up with a sigh and then laughing again as something else occurred to her. "To be quite right, I'm terrible at all of this, as well. Dating, relationships, Grimm take me, even friends are a new thing to me."

"Yeah?"

"As a famous fighter, few genuinely wished to get close to me." She nodded, face falling as she talked. "I was either the champion to be admired and adored, too far above it all to _ever_ try and approach, or the _rival_. Or worse, a means to bolster their own prestige. Never a friend, or a companion, or a g-girlfriend. Don't laugh at me!"

"I'm not, Pyr! I'm really not, promise." He lied, fighting back his snort at her cute little stammer. She flushed and he scooted over to her, crossing his legs and leaning forward so his head was level to her shoulder. Watching the forest, he sighed, "I don't have any reasons like that. But down in the Temple, there weren't exactly a lot of people to talk to."

"I can imagine." She laughed, leaning over until her head was resting against his own gently. He _tried_ to ignore her rather nice strawberry smell and listen to her speak, steadily sliding back along the stone until she could transition to laying on his shoulder, "I imagine you and I were both lonely for a long, long time."

"Yeah." He nodded, swallowing as her arms wrapped around his stomach to hug him. "Maybe that's why we get along so well…? We were both lonely growing up, and isolated, so-"

"Jaune?"

"Y-Yeah, Pyr?"

"This time next week, we could be at war. So please, for the love of the _Force_, just shut up and enjoy the moment." She sighed, sitting up and leaning around, head tilted to the side in a way even _he_ couldn't misread.

Soft, warm lips tasting of cherries pressed against his and she sighed, hand on his back pressing against him while his own arms wrapped around her. Gently, she slid around him, legs curling into his lap while her other hand, the one not on his back, ran up to grip onto the back of his neck almost possessively. He did the same and heard another one of those pleased little sighs from her, stealing a moment to breathe before she pushed back in for more.

Finally, after what felt like nearly a lifetime for all that it had been scarcely five minutes, she pulled back. Flushed and hanging off him, she smiled, "Not bad for a first real attempt at a good kiss, no?"

"N-No, definitely not." He grunted, the woman smiling as he leaned in for another.

Before he could, though, he felt what he could only describe as a nail being driven into his skull and hissed, dropping her to clutch at his head. He heard a splash and when Pyrrha was back in his vision, she was wet and worried, kneeling in front of him and grabbing his shoulders.

Forcing him to meet her eyes she asked, quiet and full of fear, "Jaune, what's wrong?"

"I don't know." He hissed, forcefully closing himself off to the Force by will alone and turning to rest his splitting head against the cool of the rock. "It was like… I was so open to the Force, and all was still and calm. Normal. And then suddenly it felt like- Like thousands of voices suddenly crying out in pain and fear, some silencing one after another while others intensified and slammed into me."

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah." He grunted, standing and letting her rise with him. "Being here opened me up to it, and I was too focused on you to feel it coming."

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't be." To make his point he stepped in, pressing a bold and chaste kiss to her lips and earning a wide eyed look of surprise for the boldness. "You didn't know, and it was my fault for not paying attention to my surroundings. Lesson one, never stop watching your surroundings. Instructor would have locked me in the Black Room for that…"

"The _what_?"

"Nothing." It wasn't important now and Pyrrha wouldn't understand the point of the Black Room. He didn't want to upset her with the information besides. "Get your gear back on, we need to get to Beacon. I think something has happened out in Vale."

"I agree." She murmured, pointing up at the sky behind him. Turning, he spotted the pillar of smoke as easily as Pyrrha had and grimaced. "Vale is under attack. And by now, Blake will have the power inside of her, I'm sure. I find it unlikely that these two things _aren't_ connected somehow."

"I agree." He nodded, "Let's get back and see what is going on."

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Diligent Dunce :**_

**HIS concern is protecting Pyrrha, yes. He didn't choose to step in to protect Blake, though. He simply knew Pyrrha would, and since his goal is STILL to protect her, he wouldn't simply shrug and sod off now.**

_**Scrublord :**_

**I hope the STORY finishes as strongly as you feel the arc did.**

_**Zenith Tempest :**_

**So, why WAS THERE a conflict over Weiss? Ozpin refused the SDC's demands for more Lien, causing conflicts, which then ENDED when Ozpin was made to surrender to his demands for a more important win. With Ozpin's surrender to Jacques' demands, the conflict ends. The point of the narrative throughout was to give the kids something they could defend against. **

**Maybe I didn't do it well, I don't know, but I am going to very kindly ask you to keep the Blake/RWBY bashing out of my reviews, thanks.**

_**Unlawful gentleman :**_

**Resolution cometh, rest assured. Much of what you ask would need spoilers to explain, sadly, so sorry. The power dynamic, though, I can easily explain without spoilers. Ozpin is older than **_**most**_ **dirt is, at this point. He's been at this for a long, **_**long**_ **time. And while they make be exceptional, they are still children.**

**They made **_**damn**_ **good moves, but Ozpin is… Just more versed at every piece of this.**


	31. Destiny - Part II

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

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_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Weiss' rapier danced down and then up, flicking one Beowolf aside and letting the Creep behind it impale itself on Myrtenaster. Behind her she heard as much as _felt_ Nora's hammer slam down, crushing the Beowolf under its massive weight and power. With a grunt, Weiss flicked the vaporizing Creep off her blade and then flicked it up, hurling it _and_ the crushed Beowolf's dissolving corpse down the road like cannon-shot. They both curved up, careening over partially destroyed cars and trucks, and then came down into a pack of Grimm headed their way, breaking them up and killing a couple.

A cluster of pink, streaming grenades followed her 'improvised' shots, slamming down in a linde across the road that ripped up pavement, shattered cars, and decimated the charging Grimm. A couple of Beowolves staggered through the smoke, alive but wounded, but snapped back as bursts of automatic fire ripped into them from Weiss' other side.

"Good shot, Renny!" Nora complimented, casually reloading her grenades and adding, "More of 'em are coming, though."

"Yes they are." She sighed, giving Nora a look and smiling, "Break them up for us? Give us a minute to catch our breaths?"

"Can do!" The girl laughed, stepping forward and kneeling to better aim and place her shots.

"The civilians?" Weiss asked, turning to the young man with her. He nodded and she sighed, pleased beyond words and watching Nora's bright, pink splashes of death buy them their minute to rest and recover. "We can hold here, then. The other roads?"

"Officer Wilger said that the alleys were narrow enough down here that nothing but creeps could get through." He answered, "But as long as we stay right here, that won't be a problem. Police and a few huntsmen are holding a perimeter around where the Breach occurred."

"Good." They just needed to focus and hold, then, even if none of them were very well built for this _particular_ job.

"I'm almost out of grenades." Nora warned, pink smoke and black Grimm vapor covering most of the street a dozen or so yards up the road.

"Then save them. I have a _slightly_ illegal idea." Weiss sighed, the woman nodding and extending her hammer once more, moving back to her side and grinning widely.

Flicking Mytenaster out, and knowing that the smoke was only confusing the Grimm in and beyond it, she flicked a hand. Black glyphs spun to life on the cars in front of them, spinning for a moment while she concentrated. Finally, the metal hulks rocketed forward, hurtling down the road and through the air like more cannon-shot. They vanished in the smoke and she heard them punch down, crunching and screeching to a stop where she couldn't see.

A moment later, though, more black smoke billowed behind the steadily dissipating pink clouds.

Then the smoke billowed away, the massive head of a King Taijitu emerging from the smoke as the serpentine monster slithered towards them. Its mass crushed apart the pavement it slithered through, hurling flakes of asphalt and cement to either side along with whatever else got in its way. Spinning Myrtenaster at her side Weiss spun and knelt, pressing her brow against the pommel and flicking the Dust cylinder, using it to raise a spiky palisade of ice a few yards ahead of them for the Grimm to slam itself against and, hopefully, impale itself on.

Instead, it turned, hurling its armored midsection into the air over it and using the momentum to vault the barricade entirely.

Wordlessly, Ren and Nora stepped in front of her while she rose, glaring at the creature as it landed and curled up, twin heads hissing threateningly while more Grimm surged to either side of the ice wall. Clicking her tongue she flicked Myrtenaster, _detonating_ the wall and showering the great snake and its black and white fellows in hardened ice shards. Some were killed, some were wounded, and some escaped, but the giant snake only hissed and roared as the ice bored into its skin.

Uncurling, it continued on its way towards them, jaws wide and ready to swallow her up. Nora leapt to meet it but it yanked back at the last moment, black head snapping around and up to catch her, carrying her up in its mouth, head snapping side to side as it struggled to close its jaw around the flailing woman.

"Nora!" Ren called, scowling and leaping onto the writhing creature, peppering the white head with fire to keep it from turning its attention onto his struggling partner. An effort that worked, the man leaping off a moment later as it writhed, crushing other Grimm around it in an attempt to get at the man.

On her own, now, Weiss, leapt back as those Grimm who weren't trying and dying to get at her comrades came for her instead. A Beowolf leapt and she stepped back and then forward and to the side, Myrtenaster flicking out to carve its throat open. She left it to die and turned ducking under an Ursa's swipe and stepping forward, thrusting awkwardly up into a leaping Creep's chest as it came down on her. It died but its weight slammed home, forcing her down for the briefest of moments while she forced it off of her.

Another of the small Grimm was on her in a moment, its clawed back foot slamming against her stomach and sparking off her Aura as she cried out. Its jaw snapped down towards her head and she brought her right arm up, letting it bite down on _that_ instead if only because it was better than her throat. They struggled until she managed to bring her rapier up and push it into the creature's stomach, the monster _snarling_ and wrenching her arm to the side and up, trying to get away from her sword but unwilling to release her.

Finally, its feral strength won out and her arm snapped around at the elbow, her Aura flaring around the injury. Weiss cried out for it and the claws that wrapped around her legs, dragging her _and_ the Creep to the side. She kicked at it and slammed her rapier's hilt into the beasts holding her arm's eye, snarling, "Get off me!"

Suddenly, something bloomed in her gut and she felt her Aura draining away almost frighteningly, like it was being siphoned. A heartbeat and her world bloomed white around the edges, as _something_ metal slammed into concrete where she couldn't see and wrenched to the side, screeching through pavement and Grimm alike in a circle around her. Scrambling back on her good arm she looked up, watching the milky white, armored arm vanish before her eyes.

She'd _summoned_, she realized as she stood, her burning right arm hanging at her side. Her excitement was short-lived, though, more Grimm trundling towards her as the great snake fell, crushed on one end and somehow _decapitated_ by Ren on the other. Raising Myrtenaster she took a deep breath, pushing her Aura through the instrument again to send gouts of flame up the _absurdly_ suddenly swarming street.

Instead of _her_ fire scorching through the Grimm, though, something from above snarled and bathed the street in white flame. Turning, she blinked and smiled, "W-Winter…"

"Weiss." The woman nodded, giving her a worry filled look before stepping between her and the fight, ordering loudly, "Retake the street! For Atlas and for Vale!"

In answer, a squad of armored soldiers surged forward amid two dozen grey, out of date but still armored, Knights. Behind them, two heavy mechs trundled, the mass of machines and men ripping through the Grimm like a super-heated knife through butter. Overhead an Atlesian strike craft hovered for a moment before belching a cluster of streaking rockets down the road to break the rear line of the beasts and slow the Grimm's reacting to the Atlesian assault.

"You can support the infantry." Winter ordered as Ren and Nora came jogging towards them, sweaty and covered in smoke smears and dirt. Weiss took a step to join them and felt a hand on her shoulder, looking to her sister. "_You_," she smiled, "are wounded and out of the fight, Sister."

"But-"

"No arguing, Weiss. The situation is being resolved." The woman snapped, turning and barking out, "Medic! We have a walking wounded, here. Huntress."

Turning, Weiss let the medic that came up to them guide her to a seat and start tending to her arm. A dislocation rather than an outright _break_, luckily enough, but she was still forced to sit and watch the fighting happen in front of her. Still, she decided as the shadow of an Atlesian warship covered the sky above her, the city was saved.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Atlas had finally deployed fully to defend the City of Vale, after ten minutes of the Breach wreaking havoc and pushing the defenders back.

She smiled, leaning against a tree in the forest and using the hill it had grown on to watch the smoke billow over the city. She didn't need the hill to watch the air battle, of course. No one could easily miss the fighters and gunships screaming over the city, nor the great warship hovering low over the city. As the ship moved into place, smoke began to billow from elsewhere in the city.

The White Fang were making their own attacks under Adam's directions, then. A bit early but then, _everything_ about their time frame had been sent right to hell. Turning her head she spoke to Emerald, "What do our contacts have to say?"

"The Schnee, Valkyrie and Valkyrie's partner went into the city _well_ before the attack." The woman answered, reading off her Scroll, "Their Rocket Lockers were deployed in that direction, too, so they're probably fighting in the city. Some guards logged Nikos and _her_ partner leaving, too, headed into the forest."

"Oh?"

"Yeah." Emerald turned and pointed, "They were headed that way, away from us and into the forest. The two teams were called into the Headmaster's office, so if they have a mission or he's recruited them-"

"Then they'd want to train, yes." Cinder understood as much, knowing what they were going to be facing. But regardless, where they _were_ wasn't as important as where they were _not_. And they were _not_ at Beacon when the Power had been transferred. "Xiao Long, Belladonna, and Rose, then. These are the options in the first year, the students he's paid special attention to but who are still there even now, with everything going on in the city."

"Seems odd to me." Mercury offered boredly, laid in the grass with his leg resting on a knee. "If Beacon has sent anyone to help Vale-"

"They have." Emerald interrupted to offer, "Air support and a handful of higher year teams. More leave every minute, too, so if we wait then they probably won't have more than first and second years on hand."

"Indeed." And _that_ was an opportunity in and of itself. As weak as those children were, numbers alone could prove problematic. Cinder had learned that lesson in their attack on the previous Maiden. "Where are they?"

"They went up to his office for a meeting with the rest of the two teams, but apparently those three haven't come back _down_." She answered quietly, closing the cheap Scroll and tucking it into a pocket. "They're either still in his office or that elevator leads somewhere else. But whatever the case, Ozpin hasn't been seen in a while. Neither have those three or General Ironwood."

"Send word for Adam, then." If the General _and_ Ozpin were there, then they'd need the reinforcements. If only to bog down the students while she and her team saw to Ozpin and Ironwood, or even just the Maiden herself, whoever she was. "Tell him it is time for him to launch his attacks on Beacon, then. The Belladonna girl must be worth something to him, so inform him she will be his once all is done."

"You know, that will probably make him a bit hard to control…"

"That isn't my problem." She knew he wanted her, and if he went ballistic trying to get at her, then that was just convenient for her. Turning to head towards the school she smiled, "Send the message and let's go. We've work to do."

"Yes, Ma'am." The two answered, Cinder smiling at their obedience. "And the Grimm?"

"They won't bother us." She smiled, "Beacon, though…" She turned to the floating orb a few feet away and smiled, bowing her head, "If you would, my queen?"

Glowing, the orb bobbed once and then withdrew, vanishing into the woods while her mistress saw to her end of the plans they had made.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

They were nearly to Beacon when he sensed something ahead of them and came to a stop, turning to catch Pyrrha who had been just behind him. She gave him a questioning look but didn't resist him, instead stepping away and raising her shield warily.

"Jaune…?"

"I sensed… Something, just let me have a second." He answered, kneeling and reaching out with a palm, letting the Force carry his senses forward. Scattered through the trees, obviously hiding and moving towards the path that led up to Beacon, he could sense… "People. I don't know how many, not exactly, they're too close together for that."

"Students?"

"No." He frowned, standing and reaching up to draw his glaive. "They have ill intent, I can tell that much. And I don't recognize their…" He paused to search for the word and then sighed, giving up, "Their presences, I guess. I don't recognize how they _feel_, and they have malice on their minds."

"Malice-"

As if to answer her unfinished question, a new siren joined the distant droning that just _barely_ echoed from Vale beyond the sounds of gunfire and explosions. This one, though, was far louder and nearer. Echoing down on them from above they all recognized it from the drill done at the start of the year, made so they _would_ recognize it, Beacon sounded the warning bell.

Grimm were attacking Beacon and instead of fear, all he sensed from the people in front of them was _excitement._ It rolled off them with a nervous energy and then they were moving, towards the path up. The path to Beacon.

"They're attacking Beacon!" He snapped to the woman, rising and surging forward without another word. She didn't question him or try to stop him, following behind as they ran until he pointed to his right, "Take that side, I'll take this one!"

"Right!"

At the edge of the treeline he leapt, using the Force to propel him faster and harder and setting him spinning. His leg slammed into the back of one's head, slamming him forward and down hard enough his legs curled up to nearly touch his shoulder over his back before he snapped back forward and lay still, splayed out on the ground. Stood in their midst and over their downed friend Jaune straightened, glaive held out to his side and eyes closed.

"White Fang." He sighed, shaking his head and turning to look between each of them. There were seven, not counting the already downed man and whoever Pyrrha was engaging further along the way, closer to the path up. "Why attack Beacon? Hunters protect _everyone equally_, so why-"

"Shut it, Human!" One snarled, rushing him with a curved sword and a snarl that ended his attempt to talk.

Well, no one, especially Blake, could say he didn't _try_ talking at least…

He stepped back and to the side to dodge the slash and the Faunus growled, stepping in and cutting horizontally between them and over his fallen friend. Jaune ducked back until he was nearly flush with the wall and snapped a hand out towards the body, _yanking_ it up and hurling the fallen Faunus into his first attacker with enough force _both_ vanished into the shrubbery and undergrowth. One raised a rifle instead of a sword and his hand snapped to him and up, forcing the weapon high and letting it spray fire into the stone while he leapt for him.

Without Jaune restraining him, the concentration would be too much to risk with so many trying to converge on him, the Faunus was able to bring his weapon down. Slipping around behind him he slammed a boot into the back of a knee to force the man down, then threw the polearm across his throat and leaned back, rolling onto his back and using a combination of leg strength and the Force to hurl the man up where he slammed into a tree limb and curled around it, groaning while Jaune knelt.

Knelt and then, slowly, rose and _smiled_, "Five more of you."

Two with swords rushed him, apparently thinking that rushing a _Huntsman_ with _swords_ was a good plan. He turned, gripping the glaive in both hands and using the leverage to flick the first blade aside, bringing the haft up and into the woman's throat. She fell, clutching at her bruised neck, and he stepped by her to slam a shoulder into the big man's sternum with all the power he could muster. The man crumpled over his shoulder and then shot across the clearing and into another rifleman, the duo crumpling under his weight and Jaune's power.

"Two, now." He murmured, the duo looking to each other over his head but hesitating. He didn't have time for this… Planting the head of his glaive in the dirt he straightened, gripping each and hurling them into the wall with enough Force to leave them groaning on the ground in heaps.

Hearing rustling bushes he turned, watching another White Fang grunt collapse in a heap in the shrubbery. "Come on," Pyrrha snapped, not the least bit out of breath and smiling thinly, "I dealt with my ten, so we need to go. Beacon needs us."

"Our friends need us." He corrected, knowing what she _really_ meant and earning a wider and more genuine smile for it. Waving up the path he nodded, "Lead the way, then, partner."

"Happily."

Climbing the path they thankfully found no signs of fighting until they reached the gate, the guard standing ready as ever, armor clean and weapon unfired. Kneeling behind the edge of the gate he sighed, lowered his rifle and smiled, "Good to see you. Guessin' the fightin' I heard down that way was you?"

"It was." He nodded, turning an eye on Beacon and grimacing.

In the sky, Nevermore, Gryphons and everything else that could fly circled, fighting with airships from Atlas and Beacon alike. Guns on the ground sometimes turned skyward, their tracers carving into the sky and occasionally swatting one of the flying Grimm. Strangely, the walkway leading to Beacon was empty and undisturbed, vacant entirely save for the three of them.

"The Headmaster wants you to come to him, in his office, fast as you can." The guardsman grunted before he could question why that was, the two of them turning to him as he knelt, leveling his rifle on the path once again. "Best get goin'. It sounded important, and he said not to worry about anything but getting there."

"What about you, Sir…?"

"Miss Nikos, I have a job to do." He smiled, turning to them and shrugging. "Letter of the order, I'm to hold this gate until relieved. Now get going, before something shows up to slow you down."

"But-"

"Come on." Jaune grunted, grabbing her shoulder and turning her away from the man. She scowled at him and he sighed, pulling her along and explaining, "You wouldn't abandon _your_ duty either, so don't ask him to. It wouldn't be right."

"Doesn't mean I have to enjoy it…"

"Yeah." He laughed, shaking his head, "You're telling _me_ about it."

"Ah." She blinked, and then grimaced, earning a pang of guilt from him for it. "R-Right."

Unsure of what to say he picked up his glaive and pushed on, nearly jogging towards the main section of Campus. And towards Beacon Tower, overlooking them all.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Ironwood groaned quietly as he eased back against the cold stone of the Vault, bare skin and metal resting against cold iron. His coat, ruined by the explosion, lay in a heap on the floor beside him. But aside from the burns all along the armored plating of his prosthetics, he was unharmed and in good condition, if a bit cold in the dark of the Vault. In front of him the young Rose paced, hair messed up and cloak in tatters, trailing petals while she watched Ozpin and Glynda tend to the Maiden and her partner.

"Miss Belladonna is fine, if unconscious." Ozpin assured them, taking his hands off her head and turning away from her little cot, brought down when Glynda had been called for help. "I can sense the power in her, though. _That_, at least, was a success."

"A-And Yang?"

"Her back is _covered_ in electrical burns, obviously." Glynda answered, the blonde woman laid on her side hissing as her clothes were peeled off of burnt skin. From where he sat, he could see the burn stretching across her shoulder-blades and knew it would leave an ugly scar. "How her _hair_ survived intact, I'll never know, but aside from the burns she's alright enough. She _must_ rest, but then, the Vault is the safest place for that."

"Not to mention you and I can protect them, if the worst comes to pass." Ozpin added, turning a look on Ruby and smiling, "Are you alright, though, Miss Rose? You were unconscious, too, when we arrived."

"I-I just pushed my Semblance too hard." Ruby assured them all, bouncing around the headmistress to give Yang a smile. Turning this way and that for her sister to see she was alright, she smiled, "See? I'm just fine. Just conked out for a second, that's all."

"S'good." The blonde ground out, voice hoarse for the injury and the _scream_ she'd let out when the lightning struck. Trembling, she held a hand out and Ruby took it, smiling softly at her injured sister. "We'll be fine with some rest. S'all we need."

"Indeed." Ozpin nodded, turning to give the headmistress a look. The woman grimaced but he gave his orders regardless, "To that end, Miss Goodwitch, see to the Academy's defense. I will stay with them, to keep an eye on them and make sure they are safe."

"As you like, Headmaster." She nodded, turning and striding away quietly, rolling her shoulders gently as she readied herself for a fight.

"I should see to my men and the defense as well." James grunted, trying to stand and hissing as his prosthetic leg seized, nearly bringing him tumbling down in a heap. Ozpin caught him though, closing the distance impossibly fast and easing him back down. "Winter is in command in Vale, Oz." He ground out, "She can't command there _and_ here."

"Then issue an order for your men here to listen to Glynda." He suggested, smiling thinly as he stood over the general, hands clasped behind his waist. Turning his back on him, Ozpin added, almost coldly, "You're in no condition to fight _or_ lead, right now, James. Rest. We're perfectly safe here."

"Fine." He sighed, giving up if only because he couldn't _walk_ yet without help. Pulling his Scroll from a pocket, and thanking the gods it survived, he set to work giving the orders out. "You know, Vale is a feint attack. Beacon is the target, Oz."

"Indeed." He answered, Ruby watching them both quietly and grimacing when Ozpin confirmed his suggestion. "But we have the Maiden, and the Vault is the safest place on campus. Our enemies would have to find it, and then punch through the best defenses on Remnant to get to us."

"Still…"

"We are perfectly safe, James." The man assured him, turning so he and the young Rose could see his smile. "Let's just relax, for now, and see what comes. Hm?"

Sighing, Ironwood nodded and let his head roll back to rest against the stone, working his leg up and down to try and get the mechanisms functioning. At least well enough he could _move_ without help from someone else. Ozpin and one young Huntress in training did _not make a_ very appealing last line of defense.

But he supposed he didn't have a choice...

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

**Dear christ, this one was harder than expected. Hard but fun! Hope you enjoy it. I got amped for some fucking reason and jammed this out in one day.**

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Curious Guy (Guest) :**_

**I mean that I am nearing the end of this part of the story, but not **_**the**_ **story, if you follow. Think of it like book one ending. A sequel is already planned, if not **_**named**_ **yet, and after a break for planning this story will continue. Much more is planned for this Jaune, don't you worry.**

_**Blaze 1992 :**_

**Many weapons either directly or in specific usages can bypass Aura. Neptune's is electrical, for instance, and in the presence of water can fry someone through Aura. Similarly, electrical attacks bypass Nora's Aura twice to hit her, the fact she feeds on that not-withstanding. 'Good against Aura' is a common enough thing. Further, Jaune had a story and had to be **_**coerced**_ **into coming to Beacon, so it would be unlikely he was **_**infiltrating**_ **it. Ozpin had little reason to challenge him until he became directly involved in important matters.**

**He was a bit busy dealing with other stuff, too. Directing Ironwood or Qrow to look into the guy Ozpin has reason to assume **_**isn't**_ **a threat means not looking into things or people that could be. The Ace Ops, for example, were directed to look into Jaune rather than the White Fang. **

_**Chainthatbinds :**_

**Yes they did! They used Force Magic.**

_**Stallionwolf :**_

**The fandom has long had a problem with shitty people, and been combatting it. Depending on when you said it, various contexts were likely at play you didn't know about such as CJ Black who has been lying about and bashing RWBY ships for a year or two now. There's just complications going on is my point.**

**That said, you should separate that from the show and the ship in general. Otherwise, you're being unfair to both and to yourself.**


	32. Destiny - Part III

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

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_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

His hand snapped up and swept to the side, hurling one Beowolf into another and then _both_ into the wall of the hallway beyond, crushing them both. A third leapt for him and he turned, his partner shooting by in a streak of red and bronze to bury her spear in its chest, holding it high like a character in a movie, watching it writhe and die on her spear-point before flicking it to the side. A fourth and final, the largest and slowest of the group, reached them as she did and the woman stepped back while Jaune surged forward, saber hissing through the air and bisecting the creature.

Leaving the dead creatures to vaporise, they moved on, marching through the administrative building.

While they walked he could feel Pyrrha's agitation and anxiety rolling off of her in veritable waves. He didn't need the Force to see how his partner felt, though. Anxiety, fear and anger were written across every fiber of her being, from her long, stalking strides to her squared shoulders and grim, determined face. He understood how she felt, and understood the look too. They both knew what they were walking into, what they had fought through a dozen skirmishes with the Grimm to get to.

This could be where Pyrrha died, and she knew that more surely than most people could be sure about a lot of things.

"We're almost there, Pyr." He said quietly as they rounded the final corner and stepped into the wide, main hallway that stretched around Beacon Tower's base.

"I know." She nearly snapped at him, flinching at the tension and anger in her voice and turning a small, apologetic smile on him. "Jaune, I didn't mean to-"

"I know you didn't, Pyr, you never snap at people." Not intentionally, at least. It wasn't in her nature to snark and snap unless something was wrong. "I understand how you're feeling, Pyr. I can _feel_ it. It's kind of distracting, honestly."

"Oh is it now?" She asked in faux-annoyance, cocking her head at his words and raising both brows. She didn't look at him, of course, eyes ahead and wary in case more Grimm or invading Faunus appeared.

"You, uh, you _feel_ very loudly." He answered. Pyrrha nodded and, with a wave of her hand, prompted him for more in an obvious attempt to distract herself. "I can't super get into it-"

"Obviously, don't have an abundance of time."

"-but people tend to have specific emotions they exude particularly strongly." Why, he wasn't sure, he'd not been taught the more purely theoretical Force ideas. It didn't really matter for what he was learning overall, so why bother? Regardless, and somewhat more seriously than she'd probably hoped, he went on, "_You_ exude anxiety and similar emotions more strongly than normal. Sometimes, it makes it hard to feel what's around us."

"Oh." She blinked, guilt echoing from her and drawing a pang of it from Jaune himself. "I didn't know that…"

"Don't get lost in your own head, Pyr." He murmured as they finally reached the elevator down. Eyes locked on it, and _spiking_ in her anxiety, she only grunted and nodded. She reached for the button to call it up and he grabbed her forearm, stepping between her and it and forcing her to meet his eyes. She flinched at the contact but he ignored it, holding her arm and speaking clearly, "Close your eyes."

"Jaune, we don't-"

"Going into a fight anxious, antsy and afraid is dangerous." He cut her off, releasing her arm so he could grab each of her shoulders and hold her in front of him. "First lesson of the Way of Revan, _never_ let your emotions run loose and wild. Force Warrior or not, it doesn't matter, if you let your emotions break you then you've already lost the fight. So, trust me, and close your eyes."

"...Fine." She nodded, frowning but trusting him enough to do as he asked. Eyes closed, she asked, "What now?"

"Just breathe, in and out slowly, and think about something that makes you happy. That calms you down." He told her, "It can be an idea, like your duty as a Huntress. A memory, maybe. A place or a thing, even a story if you have one you like, or-"

"A person?"

"O-Or a person, if it works, yeah." She nodded and stepped closer, into him. He let her and after a second she leaned into him, resting her forehead against his familiarly. "Now just breathe, for a second. And focus on that person."

"Alright." She nodded, hands resting on his armored chest for support.

After a moment, he felt her anxiety start to ebb away slowly. It was still there of course, echoing distantly, but it was smaller now. More contained, like the difference between a stiff sea breeze and a hurricane gale.

Hands on her sides he asked, quietly, "Better?"

"Mhm." She nodded, blinking open emerald green eyes and then flushing at their proximity and the way she'd leaned against him, their faces scant inches apart. Pulling away she laughed awkwardly, flinching when the elevator dinged open behind him. "This is, uh, not the place or time for this, though."

"If it works it-" He blinked and leapt back and away, hand snapping up to Push her away from him.

A fireball, first sized and red hot, hurtled through the space he'd made and slammed into the wall further on. A flick of his hand called his saber back to his grip as he turned, spinning the weapon beside him as the blades came to life. Pyrrha was back in a moment, pushing him behind her and raising her shield as a burst of fire sparked across her armor, Aura and the shield itself. A practiced flick of her spear gave her her rifle and she raised it, resting it on the rim of her shield.

Beyond his Mistralian partner were four people, two women, a Human man and a Faunus with an obvious, if _different_, White Fang mask.

"Very, _very_ good reaction." The first woman, dressed in scarlet and _oozing_ a kind of sexual, predatory and eerily _familiar _confidence that set him on edge, practically purred. Watching the fire flicker and die in her hand she turned a narrow eyed, almost _amused _gaze on them, "As expected of the _great_ Pyrrha Nikos and her rather mysterious partner, Jaune Arc."

"There's only one mystery here, and that is who _you_ are." Pyrrha called in return, taking a step to the side, to put herself in a better position to block them from the elevator. "I see the White Fang mask. Are you to blame for this tragedy, then?"

"I-"

"Yes in a way, and no in a handful of others." The woman answered, earning a somehow _deeper_ frown from the Faunus for interrupting him. She ignored him, though, and went on with a demure little smile. "In truth, Ozpin and his dogs are as much to blame for this as I am. And those who so _cruelly_ oppress my Faunus allies, of course. Without their invaluable help, I would have had a far more difficult time making this _particular_ party happen."

"Party…? People are _dying_!" Pyrrha argued, turning her attention on the Faunus and ignoring the woman. "You aren't in uniform, I'm presuming you're a lieutenant? Their leader, maybe? Your people are dying out there, you know."

"They knew the risks when they signed on with the White Fang." The man answered simply, turning a sidelong glance on the scarlet woman and scowling. Looking at her rather than either of them, he added, "The White Fang's business is not something _Humans_ should feel any concern over."

"What dear Adam _means,_" The woman countered, turning a threatening smile on the man with the words, "I am sure, is that it is none of your concern."

The man's only answer was a frown and a 'tsk'.

"How very _eloquent_ of you, Adam. Truly, the greatest of Faunus poets." The woman smiled, laughing when he still said nothing. Where Pyrrha's laugh was bright and light, this woman's was cold and cruel. Turning her gaze on them once more she sighed, and asked in the single most dismissive tone he had ever heard, "I don't suppose either of you know whether I should go up the elevator or down?"

"Why would we tell you?"

"Because it's polite to answer a nicely asked question." The woman answered simply, shrugging as though it were obvious. Blinking owlishly she cocked her head to the side and, clearly mocking, asked, "Would you prefer if I said _please_?"

"_Polite_?" Pyrrha scoffed, "What would _you_ know about-"

"If you want to be polite, then maybe you should introduce yourself." Jaune tried, stepping forward and laying his free hand on Pyrrha's left shoulder. To them, hopefully, it would look like he was trying to tell her to be quiet.

To _Pyrrha_, he hoped, his warning was obvious.

"I suppose it _would_ be polite, and you did go so far as to lead us right here _and_ call the elevator for us…" The woman smiled, so confident of her victory that she'd given in to arrogance.

"Why would we waste our time on _introductions_?" Adam snapped, finally, whatever font of patience he'd been drawing on apparently running thin now. "We should kill them and be done with it!"

"Oh, you impatient little man… But fine, I suppose a compromise is in order." Adam snarled but Cinder ignored him, gesturing to the two with her and smiling. "My name, for as short a time as you will know it, is Cinder. These are Emerald and Mercury. Now, up or down?"

"Up." Jaune lied simply, thrusting his hand up and Pushing them away with all the force he could muster, taking them by surprise and actually managing to bowl Cinder over outright.

A moment later he felt his armor, as if coming alive and acting of its own accord, _yank_ him to the side. His back slammed into Pyrrha's shield hard enough to sting, but he didn't mind that or the way she shoved him off and to the side, slamming a hand on the 'down' button and stepping in front of him as a living shield. Rounds from the angry green-haired woman's twin pistols sparked off of her in the brief moment before the door shut.

"Hold on, we need some speed." She warned, grunting in effort as the elevator _rapidly_ accelerated.

A few seconds later the elevator slammed into the bottom of the shaft with enough force to _crush_ the bottom of the elevator ever so slightly. Rising, Jaune blew the elevator door off and then leapt through the gap with Pyrrha on his heels. They made it ten feet before the elevator _detonated_ behind them, fire and shrapnel chasing them. Too close to escape it, they instead stepped into each other, Pyrrha raising her shield and using her body _as_ one while Jaune batted aside the chunks of brick and metal too large for them to withstand being struck by.

From behind them, Ozpin called, "Mister Arc, what is-"

As if to answer his question, Mercury emerged from the smoke and dust like a shot from a gun, slamming both feet into Pyrrha's shield hard enough to launch them _both_ back. Using them like a springboard, he flipped back and through the air while his partner took his place, chasing the staggered duo with her two blades and forcing them back further and further. Pyrrha tried to counter, but her thrust went nowhere near the woman and then Mercury joined her, rocketing in and slamming a knee into her stomach that hurled her away from Jaune.

Next they set upon him, kicking, slashing and hacking to force him further back, closer and closer to the transfer pods. Facing two of them in such a close encounter, he didn't dare use the Force and leave himself exposed. Instead, even off-balanced and being forced back as he was, he cut and thrust in return, managing to score at least one slash with his saber that left a burn on Emerald's arm.

Finally, Ozpin intervened, rapid cane thrusts punching into Emerald by the dozens until Mercury leapt in and took her place.

Ozpin danced back and away from the man's rapid kicks and wind blasts but Mercury didn't seem to mind. On the contrary, he only kept up his attacks, perfectly content to simply take whatever ground they'd give.

Finally, after they'd been pushed back nearly to the hospital beds Yang and Blake lay on, Cinder snapped her fingers, "Emerald, Mercury, I believe that is enough."

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Headmaster Ozpin." Cinder smiled, feeling the familiar burning ache burning in her breast _flare_ as if in response to his presence. The burn had only increased as they made their way through Beacon's battle-stricken halls, like a guiding beacon directing her to what was _hers_. To her _destiny_, as much as Ozpin's little bird thought he'd taken it away from her. "So _good_ to finally meet you, after all this time."

"I'd like to say I feel the same, but I make a habit not to _lie_." Ozpin countered, watching her closely. Staring her down but speaking to the students behind him he warned, "I suggest you spread out rather than clump up behind me. Poorly trained, misled Maidens tend to have rather lacking _control_ of their fledgling powers."

"Right."

"Got it."

"Baiting me won't accomplish anything, Ozpin, I'm a _very_ patient woman." Cinder laughed, watching the two children flank out to either side. The slightest nod and wave and her own pawns matched them, pacing away from them while Adam glowered behind her. She ignored him, though, speaking to Ozpin directly, "So, one wounded General, judging from how he's leaning against that wall, one wounded _girl_ from the hospital, an unconscious Faunus-"

"Blake." Adam, interrupted helpfully, "My wayward partner."

"The fuck she is!" The blonde snapped, trying to rise and nearly falling off the bed until her sister turned to catch her and help her lean against the bed. Legs trembling pathetically, the blonde leaned on her smaller sibling and put her body between the unconscious Faunus and them, "Blake is _my_ partner, Sir Edgelord. You can fuck _right_ off!"

"Adam's partner," the blonde bristled intently at her words and she smiled, moving on, "and three students. Is this all you've mustered to defend whichever of your pawns you forced to take _my_ power?"

"I didn't force any_one_ to do any_thing_, and I would thank you not to confuse me with your so-called queen." Ozpin answered quietly, face and body rigid and tense, but otherwise a mask of pure calm. Giving Adam a small, sidelong glance he smiled, "_Blake_ chose to accept the power of her own volition. And I won't allow you to kill her for the power."

"I don't need to _kill_ her to take the power from her, Ozpin." Cinder lied when Adam's gaze snapped around to her, mouth open to say something. Flexing her parasite-laden hand she smiled, "There are a great many things about might and magic that even _you_ don't know about or understand, old man."

"Lying to me about this, knowing who I am?" He laughed, shaking his head and looking to her glowering Faunus companion, "Mister Taurus, I haven't the time for details, but rest assured that a Maiden's power can only be separated by death. The machine behind me is the culmination of years of study, and even _it_ killed Amber."

"Amber was already dead, you just wouldn't let her realize it." Cinder argued, before Adam could _consider_ what Ozpin had said. On their own she could deal with either of them, but Ozpin and Adam together were too much even for her. "I was not nearly so careful with her, and the process was interrupted by your little bird."

"The trauma inflicted on her-"

An arrow whistling towards his chest forced the old man to turn aside and cut him off, Cinder sighing and lowering the summoned weapon with a predatory grin, "I think I am _done_ talking now, though. Adam, seize your lost kitten and then-"

The feeling of goosebumps breaking out across her body was the only warning she received before she was hurled back and away. She hit the ground and rolled, pushing off the ground with one hand to dodge the next bolt of lightning that cracked from Ozpin's curled fingers. Sighing, the man pitched his cane into the air and caught it, held like a baton. Then, he rocketed towards her, trailing lightning that arced across the ground behind him.

Abandoning her bow she summoned her curved swords, stepping back and catching his cane slash on one. It shattered and he stepped into her guard, slamming the base of his handle into her forehead and then snapping a leg up to kick her away. She staggered away, parasite hand spewing a gout of fire to buy her a moment to recover.

Ozpin's cane snapped through the fire as he followed, stepping confidently towards her with his weapon held out to the side and his other hand in a fist at the small of his back. Turning, he held the weapon tip down, like a rapier, while his other hand stayed behind him.

"I should warn you," he smiled, "that I was trained very well by my master. And though it may have been so long ago as to be hard to believe, I remember the lesson _very_ well."

She hurled a fireball and leapt, summoning a replacement sword and bringing both back to cut across the man's chest.

A flick of his cane dispersed the fire as though it were nothing and, in the same movement, he stepped in and turned, shoulder angle to receive the coming hit. One sword slammed into his shoulder and skated off harmlessly, barely drawing any sparks of shed Aura, while his cane snapped up in a perfect vertical line along his sternum to catch the other. Then, his free arm finally moved, wrapping around and clutching at the small of her back. Looming over her he smiled, almost holding her like a lover would.

A heartbeat passed and he sighed, flicking the sword forward to open one side of her guard and stepping back, forcing her other arm open as well. Turning, he shoved her forward and then slammed a foot into the back of a knee, forcing her down on it. Keeping a foot on her calf he snapped a rapid flurry of thrusts into her shoulders and the back of her head before she could react and then brought his foot up and kicked her down, onto her stomach.

"Please tell me you didn't rain at any of the Academies, lesser or greater." The ancient man sighed, walking over her back and turning to look down on her face as she came up on her hands and knees. "I would _hate_ to be responsible for the schools that taught someone so… Well, _weak_."

Snarling, she pushed herself up with twin gouts of flame, then cut the flow to one to set her spinning.

Her foot cracked against his cane and then she brought her hands forward, using a point blank blast of fire to hurl herself away and burn the man in one move. So close, even _he_ couldn't react, and as she flew back so too did Ozpin. Both hit the ground and rolled onto their feet, the man dusting himself off and smiling almost _pleasedly_.

"Better." He complimented, once more raising the cane vertically across his sternum again. "A few more attacks like that and maybe you'll make me feel it."

Thinking quickly she drew two more swords, this time suffused with more Dust and Aura for durability, and snarled, loudly enough it carried throughout the wide hall, "I won't let you trick me, you _snake_!"

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

The Faunus shot towards her once again, drawing his sword in a powerful slash that she caught on her shield. Even so, and with her heels dug in and Semblance anchoring her, it forced her back a step. He frowned at that but a thrust from her spear forced him back, the Mistralian flipping back and away from him in turn, flicking her weapon to draw forth its rifle form as she landed. Snapping it up she hammered one, two, three shots out as the man pursued her.

The first he dodged, ducking his head to the side just as it cracked by. The second and third he caught on his blade, though, leaping and hurling it at her. She dodged to the side, leaping and rolling as rifle became sword and the red blade slammed into, and through, the concrete she'd stood on. Her shield snapped up on instinct just in time to catch another strike as the man, almost _faster_ than lightning, pursued her still.

She swept her sword up in front of her shield to force the blade up and away and spun on her heel, snapping out a kick that caught the man on the stomach and winded him. Using the impact to spin her further she knelt, armor scraping on the concrete, and hurled her shield into his forehead. It struck his Aura and sailed up and into the air as he snarled and backpedaled, trying to regain his balance.

Pursuing him, now, she reached up and called the shield back to her arm with her Semblance. Using it and her sword she assaulted him as fast as she could, a flurry of blows that came as fast as she could deliver them. Few sparked off his Aura or missed outright, but most he took on his blade, snapping up from his drawing position to defend him while they circled and fought. Finally, it was enough for _her_ and she was forced to back away lest she run out of breath and be left at a disadvantage.

"You're a monster." She panted, smiling as they circled.

"Not the first Human to call me that…"

"What-" She blinked, ducking back as he surged towards her with another slash. Her shield came up to force his blade back. She countered with a thrust he caught on his blade, backing away and slamming the red weapon home once more. While she had the moment, she rushed to explain, "Not because you are a Faunus. I didn't mean that context of 'monster', I'm sorry if my wording was wrong."

"Then what _did_ you mean?" The man asked, pacing in a slow circle to match her and taking the second to catch his breath.

"Your speed, your strength, your precision- You're a _splendid_ fighter, Adam." She smiled, bittersweet as her enjoyment was. "Circumstances aside, I have not enjoyed a fight as much as this one in… Gods, it feels like years."

"Hmph." The man sighed, one hand on his sheath and the other on his sword, ready should she make a move against him. "You are… Impressive as well. For a Human."

"Thank you."

"Mhm." He nodded, finally stopping his circling and crouching low, in the same stance she'd seen him take many times now. "A shame that it won't last much longer, then. It's rare to meet someone skilled enough to keep up with me. Even if you don't _compete_ with me."

"Indeed." She sighed, raising her guard and letting her smile dip as the man shot towards her again, hair seeming to glint somehow in the light of the Vault.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

The silver-haired young man spun in the air like a top, kick angling down towards his head. Stepping back, Jaune brought his saber up to catch the kick and scald his leg. But Mercury curled it in at the last second, sailing by and slamming into the ground right in front of him hard enough that the concrete cracked. He brought the bottom blade up towards his head but the man ducked back, leaping away from him with a burst of air.

His hand snapped up on instinct to Pull him back to him, but the crack and sting of bursting gunfire sparking along his back.

A moment later and the distinct, louder punch of Ruby's rifle answered. Turning, he watched Emerald duck and dodge back, towards Cinder and Ozpin's fiery battle and away from the source. Kneeling, Ruby traded out one magazine for another and pulled its bolt, giving him a little nod. Beside her, Ironwood sat, right arm sagging and leg seemingly stiff and useless, but a grim expression on his face and a large handgun in his off hand.

"You're welcome!" Ruby called when she saw him looking. "We need to deal with them so we can help Pyrrha!"

"Assuming we _can_…" He murmured, shaking his head and turning back as he heard the heavy, now familiar 'whump' of Mercury's boots.

He dodged to the side and the man punched down hard enough to crack the ground behind where Jaune had been standing. His saber hummed through the air as he turned, lashing out at the back of the man's head. Mercury ducked under the slash, face pressed against the ground. The blade passed by and the man rolled onto his back and spun, sweeping Jaune's legs in a move he'd seen in a dance video once.

Jaune's back slammed into the ground but didn't stay there, the blonde rolling away as Mercury pushed off the ground with his hands. His heavy boots slammed into the ground where his head had been a moment later as Jaune came up. He leapt for the man and Mercury leapt away, Jaune's saber carving a glowing trough in the ground as the man turned to run away from him.

And _towards_ Ruby and the hospital beds behind her.

She rose to meet him but Jaune's hand came up first, Pulling the man back towards him with all the Force he could muster in spite of the risk. Mercury shouted in surprise and sailed high through the air, but Emerald didn't come to help him this time. Instead, as he reached Jaune, the blonde stepped aside and slammed him into the ground with concrete cracking force. Mercury hissed in pain and Jaune seized the moment, cutting down and carving an attack across his stomach.

His Aura flickered and sparked madly as it went, burning clothing and searing flesh alike even beyond the Aura's protection. But Mercury stated in one piece, snarling in pain and rolling away. Jaune's hand came up as the man rose, though, yanking him off balance and towards him before the silver-haired young man could recover. His lightsaber hummed as Jaune followed, grippin it in both hands and snapping the bottom blade up, into the back of his neck.

His Aura sparked and Mercury cried out, slamming an elbow back and echoing pure terror now. The blow caught Jaune in the side of his head but that sort of pain was nothing more than a mild annoyance. Gritting his teeth, Jaune turned as the man stepped away, bringing the fore blade back and thrusting for the center of the retreating man's back.

Mercury howled as it punched into and through his shoulder-blade, but the pain, intense as it was, was short-lived. Jaune yanked it to the side, carving a neat, glowing wound from one shoulder to the other as the man pulled away.

"Mother… fucker…" The man wheezed, sinking to his knees and then collapsing in a heap inside the same moment.

"Jaune, Pyrrha!" Ruby called out, terror written in every breaking syllable of her words. On instinct he turned to where his partner had fought the Faunus, hand snapping up to help her.

Pyrrha lay unconscious on the ground, her shield broken beside her and her legs a few feet away. The Faunus stood over her, sword held high to thrust down and end her, and Jaune's blood ran cold and then very, _very_ hot. The taste of copper invaded his mouth and he shot forward, slamming shoulder first into the Faunus and _catapulting_ him away and into the wall a few feet away. Adam made to rise but Jaune's hands snapped up, hurling him into the wall once, twice, and then a third time before he was satisfied.

Turning, he knelt by the woman and laid a hand over her mouth to see if she was breathing. A shadow loomed over him and he looked up, snarling and ready to strike.

"I've got her." Ironwood grunted, kneeling as much as falling for his leg and pulling the bleeding woman onto his shoulder. "I've dealt with amputations like these before," he reassured him, "_deal_ with- Faunus!"

The man's warning did not come late and Jaune turned, catching a _flash_ of red before his hand snapped up, Pushing the man away just enough to stop his lunge. The Faunus snarled and Jaune matched him, worry washing away in favor of raw fury as his hand came back up. The man flew back again, slamming into the wall so hard his Aura sparked and flickered before he hit the ground.

Jaune pursued, feeling the Force _crackle_ around him as he laid into the man. The Faunus, even winded and low on Aura, managed to keep away from his wild hacking, slashing and thrusting, stumbling away as often as he managed to catch the long grip of his weapon with his sword and turn the attacks aside.

"Enough!" Jaune screamed, the Force and his rage rushing through him as his hand snapped up.

Lightning arced from his fingertips, slamming into his blade as it came up and then arcing along and around it, into him. Adam's mouth opened but he didn't scream, instead letting out a long keening sound before he was hurled to the side and into the wall. Smoking, the man staggered forward a step, still holding onto consciousness until Jaune snapped a hand up and slammed him back into the wall.

And then he did it again, and again, and again a third time, until Adam's sword fell from his fingers and the man collapsed.

"Well, that was all suitably _dramatic_." A voice called from further up the now silent Vault. Turning, Jaune watched Cinder drop Ozpin's still form at her feet. A few feet behind her, Emerald lay, spread eagle and apparently unconscious, bloodied sickles beside her. "Don't worry about _her_," Cinder laughed, "she's simply tired. Her Semblance can be draining on those with strong minds."

"Now then, let's all reconsider our positions, shall we?" Cinder smiled even wider, clapping her hands together and then spreading them like a salesperson. "All of you are exhausted or unable to fight, Ozpin is _dead_, and I am still standing. A wounded soldier, a little girl and her equally broken sister, _half_ a Mistralian… What have you got that you would like to put in between me and what is rightfully mine?"

For a long moment, all was quiet, until Ironwood finally spoke, "And what happens if we _do_ give her to you?"

"I bury an arrow in her heart, take what's mine, and leave." She laughed, shrugging as though it were obvious. As though they should have known and accepted her answer already. "No one else needs to die, and I've already lost one valuable pawn. I'd rather not risk my other if I don't need to."

An arrow… This was the woman who had attacked Amber, and she would use an arrow to end Blake for her power. This was the woman from his vision, except, Pyrrha wasn't able to fight anymore. She'd lost her legs, had her shield broken, and lay unconscious on the ground behind Ironwood and Ruby, bandages stained with the slightest red where her legs had once been.

But she was _safe_...

Jaune couldn't help himself, at the realization. He threw his head back and laughed, as if he'd heard the greatest joke in his lifetime. "Cinder!" He called as his laughing died down, turning narrow eyes on her, "Would you mind answering a question?"

"I… Suppose so."

"Good, good." He smiled, cocking his head and setting his saber spinning beside him. "Do you believe in _destiny_?"

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

**A day late, sorry, this one had a lot of pieces to move at once. However, I like this chapter. Built the villains up a good bit, and built how they act towards one another. And set up plenty of details showing why **_**events**_ **occurred to characters in-chapter, if people look closely.**

**Also, yep, Jaune is finally truly **_**snapping**_ **under the pressure. I know you've all been waiting, anticipating a final snap, and, well, it's happening.**

**Lastly, I tried very hard to use this chapter to briefly build up the villains just a **_**bit**_ **more, without wasting this update. And I put a good deal of effort into making each fight feel a bit different afterwards. I hope all went well, and I hope that even if you disagree with choices, you enjoyed the ride!**

**Stay twisted, and **_**safe**_**, my friends.**

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Argus :**_

**She does! It's called 'Author Doesn't Wanna Manage a New Haircut'! Top of the line stuff I tells ya.**

_**The Sly Sage :**_

**I confirm and deny nothing~**

_**Nick Kane :**_

**Yeah that… That is gonna be a *thiiiiiiiiiiiiing* if/when I get to it in this series.**


	33. Destiny - Finale

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

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_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

**I saw some mild confusion, so I will explain-**

**Cinder references Emerald helping her beat Ozpin. Emerald simply used her Semblance to trick him, and Cinder stabbed him. Ruby was not in melee with Emerald, she was protecting the injured people with Ironwood and shooting from long range to try and help.**

**Sorry if I wasn't clear, there were a lot of moving pieces.**

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

"Good, good." The blonde man laughed, the sound harsh and almost _chilling_. Shaking his head, the man cocked his head to the side and, smiling far wider than a man whose partner had just been _mutilated_ should, asked. "Do you believe in _Destiny_?"

"What a strange… Question..." Her response died in her throat, the heat choked out by a strange, _chilling _pressure that had suddenly blossomed in her stomach.

It was a familiar sensation, the kind she had gotten when she was younger, whenever she failed in her training and Salem had… _Words_ for her. The simple question of 'should I take you to my quarters?' had chilled her to her very being even _before_ the first time it had been said. And after, the mere _mention_ of a night of Salem's _teaching_ was enough to motivate her to heights of skill and power.

It was _fear,_ deep, instinctive and primal, welling up against her will and taking hold of her like a tide of cold water that had washed over her. It was almost painful, even, compared to the adrenaline high of beating Ozpin she had felt before. Like a man lost in the blazing desert that suddenly downed a bottle of _ice cold_ water, that settled in his guts and throbbed painfully.

_Threateningly_, warning of a coming shock that would kill her.

'_Why?'_ She asked herself, '_I have the upper hand. The high ground…'_

Yet, her instincts _screamed_ wariness at her, looking at that cheshire smile and those narrow, yellow eyes. His face was split in that grin, still, but it didn't reach those sharp eyes. No, those remained glassy and impassive, glowing so faintly she could barely see it. So faintly, she wasn't sure that she _was_ seeing it, and that it wasn't just the reflection of the lights hanging from the ceiling and the walls.

Still, she reigned her instincts in, forced a smile and cocked a hip, "My name is Cinder _Fall_, boy. I very, very much believe in destiny."

"Good." He repeated, catching his weapon and turning, holding his left hand across his chest and the saber out. Holding it horizontally, the glowing blades framed his face and lit it in red, drawing the glow of his eyes out more and making his teeth glint as he finished, "Because I don't, anymore."

_That_ was as much of a warning as she got, the young man _launching_ forward with floor cracking power. He rolled as he reached the roof and then shot towards her with the same force, spinning through the air so fast that his red blades blurred into one spinning glow. She knew the damage those weapons could do, Aura or not, and leapt back as he came down, red blade stabbing down into stone that bubbled and melted around it.

He yanked it up and towards her, hurling molten rock at her and forcing her to dodge to the side as he leapt for her again, before she could dodge away.

He landed on a heel and spun, thrusting the point towards her face and forcing her to duck to the side and down. Right into a knee that snapped up and caught her on the chin, snapping her head up and sending her reeling back as the man spun again. Staggering away she hissed in pain as searing heat bloomed along her Grimm infested shoulder. Planting a heel, she drew on the raw, painful Maiden power within her, suffusing her swords with it and hurling one into the air between them.

It detonated like a shaped charge, blasting sharnel at the man and forcing him back a step.

Spinning on her own heel, she hurled the second through the smoke of the first, detonating in a second shaped explosion that showered where the man was in heat and razor sharp glass. She didn't see him leap to either side or up and smiled, summoning two more swords and _pouring_ her power into them as well. Hurling them through the smoke as well she smiles, showering where he _had_ to be in super-heated glass shards and just a _touch_ of Maiden fire. Summoning a bow, she turned and leapt to the side, nocking an arrow and searching for her prey.

She found him inside a moment, his black robes smoldering in a hundred tiny places and one hand held out, the shower of shards she had launched at him floating before him. He saw her when she saw him, turning and snapping his hands towards her in the same moment that she released her glass arrow.

The sheer _mass_ of the glass that slammed into her was enough to send her flying back and away, screaming from the sweet agony of the countless glass shards carving across her Aura. Her back hit the cold stone and she rolled, rising and snarling from the pain of their short skirmish. Her shoulder was burned, too, the fabric of her dress charged when she flicked a gaze to it.

Her Aura was already seeing to that, though she hated wasting it on healing. But the pain made moving her shoulder harder, enough that she needed it. Which was probably the bastard's plan, effectively hitting her Aura twice. It was clever, and so sadistic that she was genuinely surprised someone under Ozpin's control would even _consider _it. But damn if it wasn't effective.

Mercury had learned _that_ lesson already…

"You're quite the vicious fighter, you know." She complimented as the man reached her, rising to meet him and summoning two more of her curved, expendable blades. A drain on already dwindling reserves, but she needed them as much as she needed the time that prompted her to try and draw the man into conversation. "I'm surprised Ozpin would let someone like you-"

He cut her off by stepping in, crossing the couple feet between them and spinning on a heel. The bottom blade thrust for her stomach and she ducked back and to the side, then bent back at her waist to dodged the follow up that came with his turn. A foot snapped out to sweep her legs. She fell, landing on her back and rolling to the side as he pursued, spinning the staff in his hands as he came, melting the stone right behind her until she abandoned a sword to _blast_ him away from her.

He saw it and came to a sudden stop, invisible hand snapping out to catch it and hurl it up, into the roof where it exploded, showering them in broken ceiling tiles and brick. That hadn't been the _intention_, but it worked well enough to buy the second she needed.

Seizing it she hurled her sword at him, forcing him to flick it away as she leapt and called on two more or her Aura infused swords. The left slammed down on the handle of his weapon as she snapped it out, stopping a slash meant for her face. The second thrust up and in at the same moment, carving a thin line in the flesh under his eye and drawing a snarl from the man and a smile from her. Pivoting on the spot, he snapped the handle up and into her face hard enough to split her lip and force her back, and then cut down between them.

The blow _hurt_, drawing a scream from her as skin seared through her Aura, but she didn't back away. Instead, she cut in and up, her sword carving a shallow cut into the flesh of his left arm from his elbow to his shoulder before he could pull away. Turning his uninjured right side to her he raised a hand, hurling her away using his _aggravating_ Semblance.

Using a short, _painful_ blast of Maiden fire, she spun in mid-air and hurled her swords back towards him, detonating them both short to shower him in the glass shards. As expected, he snapped his hands up and then to the side, parting the black sea and sending the two sides buffeting into the distant walls to either side. She landed and summoned two more, then threw those and summoned _another_ pair to hurl just behind the first. They detonated on a delay but Arc didn't fall for the little trick, parting one shrapnel cloud and hurling them towards the wall and then hurling the second towards the ceiling.

Still, they and the space bought her a moment to get her bearings.

Emerald had moved during the fight, exhausted and kneeling beside the elevator's blasted opening a dozen yards away. A glance showed her the children and the useless Atlesian, still shielding their wounded a fistful of yards behind _her_. Both were armed, but neither could _do_ anything regardless lest she turn on them. It was a solid bet that that was the only reason they weren't shooting her in the back right now, she figured.

"I'm not very _patient_!" Arc called, a second before a hunk of stone slammed down at her feet and forced her back.

Weapon sheathed on his back, he stretched his hands high and smiled, pulling chunks of the _roof_ free with his Semblance and hurtling them towards her. She leapt back to dodge one and then forward to dodge another, vaulting over the first as a _fourth_ slammed where she'd been standing and exploded, showering her in rocks and dirt. He kept it up, yanking down hunks of concrete and slamming them down into her with reckless abandon.

"Stop!" She called out as she leapt forward, closing the distance with him steadily and summoning her bow again, "You'll kill us all, you moron!"

"Nope!" He laughed, grinning so widely she was sure even _Tyrian_ would have been unnerved by it. "Just you!"

As if to punctuate his words he hurled another man-sized hunk of concrete her way, forcing her to leap far to the side or be crushed. No sooner had she hit the ground and rolled to her knees did a smaller one slam into her stomach hard enough to drive her onto her back with a strangled cry. Shoving it off of her she rolled over as another slammed into the spot her head had occupied a moment later, and she snarled, snapping a hand up and letting the Maiden power _sear_ through her freely.

The lance of magically conjured and focused fire slammed into the cracked stone, blasting it apart and hurling shrapnel in a wide, sparse cone that covered the other side of the room. Then, she turned it skyward, _carving_ through the ceiling and showering the Huntsman in rock, dirt, wiring and most importantly, a _thick _cloud of dust. The power surge died quickly, leaving her feeling drained and weak, but she didn't falter.

Faltering meant dying, and she was _not_ dying today, even if that meant taking the power and running for her life.

Salem appreciated _failures_ less than she did cowards, after all.

Summoning her bow and turning, she drew back an Aura and Maiden power infused, _incredibly_ explosive shot. She aimed for the group and as she'd hoped for a moment and, just as she'd hoped, the silver-eyed girl and the general stood and turned their backs on her, shielding the lot of them with their bodies. At the last moment, though, she snapped her aim up and loosed her shot into the cailing high above their heads. It exploded with a great, stone cracking force, sending massive slabs of concrete falling towards the group faster than they could have hoped to move them all.

Half-way down, it _stopped_, loose dirt and stone falling onto the children but the greater mass holding in mid-air.

It began to slowly move to the side and back, away from the woman's targets and Cinder snarled. Summoning another arrow she turned, searching the settling dust for the blonde. After a moment she saw the red glow of his blade _bloom_ into life and smiled, firing a single shot to the side of it where she knew his body ought to be. The wet _thwack_ of a heavy glass arrow hitting flesh reached her. The red blades seemed to _flinch_, but they didn't wink out until she fired two more shots at the same place, the same _thwack_ echoing back to her a moment before the much heavier rumbling of the concrete debris falling reached her.

Smiling, she turned back to the assembly of children and cripples and asked, "Now then, I believe you have something that's mine?"

"They don't," a familiar voice called out from behind her, "but I do, if you still want her."

"What?!"

Spinning on her heel she nocked another summoned arrow and then froze, watching the man emerge from the smoke with his staff at his side in one hand. The other held Emerald in front of him, gripped by some invisible force and held in front of him like a shield. A shield with three of her black arrows in its back, her limbs hanging limply by her side. With a flick of his wrist he tossed Emerald toward her, letting her collapse in a heap between them while Cinder stared.

"E-Emerald…?" She blinked, taking a single step towards the girl while her heart _chilled_ in her breast. Turning a look on the blonde man she asked, quietly, "W-What did you…?"

"You weren't using her, but I needed her, so I borrowed her." The blonde answered, smiling widely and shrugging as if it were obvious. "I think I broke her, though."

Snarling, she hurled her bow down and let the Maiden power run free once more, hurling herself at the grinning _bastard_ as swords of living fire bloomed to life in her hands.

His smile only widened as he turned and slid back into his starting stance again, bright red blades flaring to life on either end. One flaming blade slammed down into his own red one and held, which at least seemed to _surprise_ the man. He recovered fast, though, dropping the blade and snapping the other up, towards her face. She ducked back to dodge it and his hand snapped up, electricity _arcing_ out and into her from his curled, splayed fingers.

It only lasted a moment, but her entire _body_ seized as the electricity coursed through her, forcing her back a step. Then, she was lifted up and yanked towards the blonde, heat and _agony_ blossoming across the side of her face as she staggered past him, sinking to a knee with a hiss of pain. Blinking through the stars in her vision she felt her heart speed up, hammering in her chest as her fingers reached up to touch the aching side of her face.

She couldn't see her fingers on her left side.

White hot pain shot through her shoulder, next, and she howled. The searing pain carved up and then a boot hit her in the spine, sending her sprawling across the cold stone floor. Rolling over, she felt a foot slam down, into her sternum, driving the breath out of her lungs. Glaring up at him, Cinder felt the heat of his weapon as he brought it down, hovering threateningly over her face.

"So," Jaune Arc asked quietly, "do you _still_ believe in destiny, Cinder?"

"I-I do..." A weak voice murmured, before the rapid _crack_ of an auto-pistol split the silence, sparking across his Aura and forcing him back a step.

Then, it was like he was fighting an invisible enemy, ducking back again and again and countering with his saber. His hand snapped up, lightning arcing out from it to crack along the floor in front of him, and then he leapt back and away. What he was seeing, she had no idea, but rolling onto her stomach it was easy for her to guess the culprit. Standing, she staggered on, ignoring the agony of her shoulder and the _distinct_ burned pork smell as she went.

"Get up, Emerald." She grunted as she reached the bleeding woman and knelt by her head. "We have to go."

"I c-can't." She murmured, laid where she'd fallen and how save for her head, which she'd turned towards the blonde.

Even now, her glassy eyes followed the blonde bastard. Weak and drained, closer to brown than the glossy red they normally were. Yet so _very_ defiant. More defiant than Cinder had _ever_ seen them, in fact.

"I'm not done with you yet, Emerald." She argued, quietly, a sudden anxiety overtaking her along with something else. Something distinctly _cold_ yet somehow hot at the same time in a way that she didn't understand.

"I have to… Distract him." She coughed, flecks of red spittling out with the wet hack that wracked her.

"I'm not leaving you- Gah!" She cried out and staggered as a heavy shot slammed into her back, driving her forward and making her weakened Aura _flicker_ threateningly.

A second shot split the air, but this one went high and to the side, followed by a third and a fourth that did the same, trailing back until the young Rose turned on Ironwood himself. A flick disarmed the surprised man and then she was on him, forcing him to stagger and dodge desperately until he finally grabbed her, wrestling her to the ground with his larger mass and shouting for her to stop.

"Emerald are you-"

"I can't do two for long." She answered, cutting her off for the first time in her entire life. "I c-can't walk, and even if I c-could, I have to keep them here. Off you."

"I…" The woman was right, and Cinder knew it, even if it made her angry in a way she couldn't understand. "Goodbye, Emerald."

Sighing, she stood and stumbled towards the door, frowning deeply as she left the last of her pawns behind to do its job. Unfortunate that it could not _become_ a Queen piece, but it could at least be sacrificed for one. As angry as _that_ fact made her, for reasons she didn't understand.

'_Jaune Arc...'_ She growled as she considered his name, stepping into the blasted out elevator shaft and laying a hand on one rung of the ladder. Looking up, at the long, painful climb, she growled.

"He will _pay_, Emerald." She promised, pulling herself up, "I'll _make_ him."

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Cinder laughed as the glowing edge of his saber took her head, the body and head both dissolving into nothingness as they fell. Confused, he froze, lightsaber in hand and eyes narrowed. A gunshot split the air a moment later and he snapped around, looking towards the sound only to find Ruby sheepishly standing with Crescent Rose clutched to her chest while Ironwood groaned on the ground.

Weak, hacking laughter drew him _back_ around to the green-haired source of _that_ sound, lips curling down as he stormed towards her.

"W-What's wrong?" The woman choked out, white clothes stained red and her dark skin pale. She didn't move as he approached her, only laughing weakly and asking, "D-Did you have a bad dream?"

"I thought you were dead." He said in answer, kneeling beside her head and looking in her weak eyes. "You look like you're on the way. Mind sharing how long you were using your Semblance on me?"

"Why should I?"

"Dunno." He shrugged, anger burning in his gut and drawing a deep scowl to his face. Still, he at least tried to _sound_ diplomatic, "Might be able to save you if you help me catch that one-eyed cunt."

"No you w-won't." She laughed, the sound dying in a wet little rattle that shook her entire body. Voice weak and slurring, she answered, finally, "Doesn't matter now, 'sgone b'now. Five minutes 'go maybe."

"Damn it." He didn't sense her nearby, either. Standing, he paused just long enough to chuck the dying woman's weapons away before he turned his back on her.

"Jaune!" Ruby called out, flashing in front of him with a trail of petals scattering in her wake. She looked _exhausted_ and drained, from the fighting and the death he supposed, but she kept on anyway and still pushed a smile onto her face. "It's Pyrrha, she's awake, asking for you."

"Is she okay?" He asked, brushing by her before she could answer and sprinting to where she lay.

With the fighting over and done with, Yang had volunteered her mildly more exposed bed for Pyrrha to use while she leaned against the wall at its head. She looked drained, her legs just the least bit shaky, but she was standing at least. Ironwood couldn't say the same, collapsed against the wall behind her, massaging his cybernetic shoulder with a pinched, pain filled face. Blake was still unconscious, face covered in sweat and hands twitching under the thin sheet she'd been covered with, but he ignored her.

"Hey, Jaune." Pyrrha murmured as Yang shuffled around Ironwood to give him space. Smiling weakly she forced a laugh, "I'd sit up but… Sitting hurts."

"You're fine, Pyr. I- You're fine." He assured her, laying a hand on her shoulder in case she _tried_ to get up and turning a look on the foot of the bed.

The same thin medical sheet had been laid over her, covering her stomach pooling in a loose pile at the end of what was left of her thighs. Past the bed, on the opposite side of the room, his eyes found the Faunus. Who had done it, he wasn't sure, but the man had been disarmed and cuffed. Then bound like a pig and left on his side, facing the wall. Growling, he turned towards him, saber blade humming to life.

"Jaune." Pyrrha's voice stopped him and he turned, looking down on her. "He's beaten. Leave it."

"But he-"

"Beat me in a battle, and then lost to you." Pyrrha cut him off, her pale face turning grim as she looked on the man. "He's been arrested by the general, and that is enough."

"But Pyr, he-" His emotions welled up suddenly and he turned to her, leaning on the bed and taking a deep, deep breath to try and get himself back under control. "Look what he _did_! Your legs a-are- They're-"

"I'm _acutely_ aware, Jaune, believe you me." The woman sighed, looking at his shoulder and grimacing. "Your shoulder, Jaune. You are bleeding. Ruby-"

"Got the bandages!" The young woman cheered, holding up an already opened, mostly empty first-aid kit beside him and waving for him to sit at the foot of the bed.

"I'm-"

"Jaune Arc, I am in a _lot_ of pain, but I _will_ make you sit down if I have to." He hesitated, looking at the Mistralian, and she sighed. When she tried to rise he sighed and sat down at the foot of the bed, offering his shoulder to the tired girl. "Thank you, Jaune."

"Whatever." He growled, irritated to no end and watching Ruby clean the ragged cut along his arm. "It's fine, I don't need it."

"Jaune, your arm is-"

"_But_," he sighed, giving Pyrrha a look before she could argue the point, "if it makes you feel better, I'll sit through it. No one _else_ is hurt enough to need tending except you. And I doubt that anything in there will be much help for you."

"A first aid kit isn't exactly useful for amputations." Pyrrha confirmed, smiling sadly and taking a shaky breath. Turning a look on Yang and, beyond her, Ironwood she asked, quietly and anxiously, "General, how much do prosthetics like yours cost?"

"I don't know." The man answered quietly, voice strained and pained. "Mine were provided by the military, so I could continue service."

"Oh…"

"I'll arrange for some for you, Nikos, don't worry about that." He ground out, stiling rubbing the flesh around his implants. "Once the battle is over we'll all be tended to properly, _Taurus_ will go to prison, and we can all move on. For now, just rest.

"I'm just glad it's all over…"

"It isn't, Ruby." He growled, holding up his arm while she wrapped a bandage around it. "Cinder got away. She's the archer from my vision, and that means it isn't over. Not until she's dead."

"It's over _for now._" Pyrrha said quietly, her hand seeking out his when Ruby was satisfied his arm was bandaged well enough and let him relax. Squeezing it affectionately, she said, "We can deal with everything else later. For now, we are victorious."

"Yeah…" He sighed, trying to ignore the empty space behind him where Pyrrha's legs would have been. "We won the battle, at least.

"And _tomorrow_ we can worry about the war." Pyrrha nodded, squeezing his hand again. "For now, let us just be happy to be alive. More than can be said for _many_ of our enemies, and few of us."

"What about Adam?" He asked, hand fingering his saber at the foot of her bed. Ruby gave him a sad look but shuffled off when Yang groaned and called for her, using the younger girl to help her sit and letting her look at her burned back and the bandages that had come undone on it. "He took your legs, Pyrrha. I could-"

"As the victim, I think that I deserve final say on what should be done to avenge my wounds." Pyrrha argued icily, turning a look on him until he nodded quietly. "Well, I happen to think being dragged into court, torn apart by the public eye and then imprisoned for all he deserves while I live free and happy is _quite_ a good revenge. Don't you?"

"I suppose…"

"I could even visit him, tell him about the outside world." She smiled, raising an eyebrow at him. "I could tell him about food, about Grimm hunts, the news. All the things he won't be allowed access to in prison."

"That's pretty vicious." He laughed, rubbing a thumb in a small circle on the back of her hand. Sliding his lightsaber into the sheath on his back he sighed and threw a hand up in fux-surrender, "Fine. We'll rest for now."

"Good." She tugged her hand free and, using both her arms and grunting for the effort, slid a bit to the side and patted the spot beside her, smiling thinly. "Then please, if you don't mind, rest with me."

"Sure." He sighed, shrugging off his sheath and laying down with her.

At least for now, they could relax, her head on his shoulder in spite of the dirt and grime. It was nice already, to be able to genuinely enjoy some time where Pyrrha wasn't in _any_ danger again. One day, he'd make that the _norm_, but for now he could at least bask in the moment, even if he was _fairly_ certain Pyrrha just wanted to steal his heat.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

**That fight scene murdered me. I hope you all enjoyed it, it was so difficult to get it going and then it just sort of bloomed into life all on it's own. Kinda hectic, kinda thicc, **_**tried**_ **to go for that large scale Force display and dunno how it turned out.**

**Thoughts are appreciated.**

**Hope you enjoyed it, hope you look forward to the next arc of this tale, hope you have a good day.**

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Insane Wombat :**_

**Much power. Unlimited, it is.**

_**Sly Sage :**_

**Revanism is a complicated topic, with a lot of versions depending on when you look at it. So I readily forgive anyone's confusion. As for ships… We shall see where the story, overall, ends. For now, at least, is Arkos. I recommend you follow me for when the sequel drops, though.**

**Knightshade is pretty good, though.**

_**Gunblade :**_

**AN at the top, friend.**

_**Generic wryter :**_

**I mean, I've changed a **_**lot**_**, friend. Mercury, for example, is out and out dead as of last chapter.**

_**The One You Don't See:**_

**Yup! Woe unto she who fights Adam Taurus without knowing his Semblance.**

_**Argus 456 :**_

**Yeah, that's basically what he did. Full on mad cackle. And yeah, this is… A pretty intense set piece I got goin' on here.**

_**Autobot Seeker :**_

**I… Don't think he Force Choked **_**Cinder**_**, but Emerald got some.**

_**Joeyginise :**_

**Yeah, she got scared at the start. Pushed through it, the arrogant cunt she is, but at the start she froze up a bit. And yeah, he kicked her ass, too. Shame Emerald **_**exists**_**, ain't it?**

_**Yavin Yams :**_

**They were both severed a bit of the knee, around mid-thigh.**

**And… No. If/when Pyr gets new legs, they will be custom.**

_**Hirshja :**_

**I answered in the AN at the top.**

**Have fun theorizing about Ozpin's distant, mysterious past!**

_**Ficeater :**_

**Fighting Adam Taurus without knowing his Semblance is a bad life choice, friend. Also, he was acting like a Revanite, not a jedi. Were he acting as a Jedi, he'd never have started dating Pyrrha.**

_**Maul Fan (Guest) :**_

**He has various styles he fights with. In this one, he used **_**some**_ **Maul stylings. But bear in mind that Maul's techniques are built around fighting lightsaber wielders, so they don't apply **_**uber**_ **well.**


	34. Book One : Epilogue

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

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_**Beta(s) : **_

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

**Started writing this while ill, triple digit temps. Will hopefully be better by the time it's done, but meh, is getting done.**

**Once a Rookie is also as of writing this halfway done on its new chapter. Just… Lookin for creative energy, right now, and better to get something done out of order than not getting **_**anything**_ **done at all.**

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Cinder came to in an old room she didn't recognize, staring up at an old, flaking, cracked and yellowing ceiling and blinking owlishly. Her head felt heavy and thick, like ice cold syrup sloshing around lazily in a bottle. For a while that _infuriating_ realization was all her foggy head could register, could _process_, beyond tracing out the myriad cracks that spider-webbed the ceiling above her.

Then, she heard a voice.

"Ah, you're _finally_ awake." The man said, his voice nothing but condescension and smarm. "I was wondering when you would decide to wake up, Cindy. Having to smuggle out an unconscious, _wanted_ woman wasn't something I looked forward to."

She tried to speak first, to say something to the man, but her mouth felt like cotton. Dry and rough, and certainly not about to let her _speak_. Giving up on that, she tried to turn to look at the man, following the sound of his heels on the floorboard, but all _that_ accomplished was sending a lance of agony through her shoulder and into her neck and head. The white hot agony dragged a hiss of pain from her and set stars in her eyes.

And earned a low, mocking laugh from the man for her efforts.

"Your head feels heavy and thick, your mind is a bit on the slow side and your mouth is drier than a Vacuoan summer." The man informed her dryly and simply, dragging a chair over to her and sitting down beside her. "Morphine," he explained, leaning forward so she could see him smile down at her, "for your rather, well, _extensive_ injuries."

Injuries...?

Ah, yes, she remembered now, lances of pain slamming into her from the side of her face and her shoulder. It was sudden, like a switch had been thrown, and drew another hiss from her. Then, the pain started to fade again and she turned, ever so slightly, to see the man's hands withdrawing from her.

"_Very_ extensive injuries." He reiterated, inspecting the empty syringe in his hand and then dropping it into a little bag on the bed beside her. Sighing, the man met her gaze and held it, gravely serious for once, "Normally I'd enjoy this, but time is a bit of a commodity for the moment, so I'll be frank. Do you remember what happened?"

Remember what… Ah.

"The… Maiden." She murmured, voice rough and gravelly. Her dry throat seized and she coughed, pain flaring along her side and through her head as she did. As the stars settled she felt a straw press to her lips and leaned up, sucking the cool water down greedily until it was withdrawn. "P-Please-"

"Normally, I'd rather enjoy your begging, but again, time." Watts sighed, withdrawing the water and giving her a look, "What happened? Do you remember?"

"Went for the Maiden." She explained weakly, "Killed Ozpin, beat most of them, but…"

"But?"

"The… Blonde." What was his name? She couldn't remember it and growled for it, closing her eyes and sighing weakly. "Head's… Foggy, I can't remember his name."

"Describe him." Watts ordered simply, drawing his Scroll out and flicking it open.

"Blonde." She started simply, coughing once before going on, "Black robes, with light armor I… Think." What the hell kind of morphine had the man put her under with? "Nikos' partner. Adam beat Nikos, then he went… Ballistic."

"Explain." Watts ordered simply, adding, "As best you can, at least."

"It was… Like fighting Ozpin, almost." Not quite, but Watts could at least get the idea from the description. Still, she tried to think and offer more, as difficult as _either_ was for her, "He was less skilled. Sloppy. But… He shot lightning from his fingers and-and he ripped down stones from the ceiling, threw them at me."

"Lightning…?"

"Yes." She remembered watching him use it on Adam, before he treated him like a dirty room, beating it against the wall to clean it. "I hit him with everything I had, e-even called on the Maiden power some, but he… Didn't _care_. He just kept coming and- _Emerald_!"

The sudden shout set off a coughing fit that had the man sighing and pressing the bottle of water back to her lips. He let her have a couple sips before withdrawing it again and saying, quietly, "Emerald was the little girl you kept with you, yes?"

"Y-Yes." She answered, "I- He tricked me and I-"

"Shot her, yes." He nodded, raising his Scroll and smiling thinly. Condescending and pleased with himself, almost, but like he knew better than to _really_ show it. Quietly, he said, "I have access to Atlas' after action reports. Her body was recovered with a couple of glass arrows lodged in it, after everything was said and done."

"Her body…?"

"Oh yes." He nodded, "She is very, _very_ dead I'm afraid. Atlas' reports make that very clear."

"Damn it…" So she'd killed her after all, then. Whether or not the blonde bastard had tricked her into it didn't matter, not to her. She'd still taken the shots. Still killed her with her own arrows, with her own two hands.

Her own two hands…

Head throbbing she grit her teeth and put all her meager energy into lifting her hand. Looking at it. Her right arm was injured, covered in bandages and a cast around her wrist. But for the most part, it was nothing _too_ severe. Letting the arm rest at her side she turned her head and blinked, not seeing the bed even as her face _ached_ for her rubbing her cheek against it. For the moment, she ignored that, and tried to lift her other arm to inspect it.

All she got in answer was a searing pain and a strange… Tingle. Like she was trying to move a numb limb, and her brain couldn't _quite_ register if it was there or not.

When she didn't see anything for a moment her heart began to race and she murmured, "W-Watts, what's wrong with my-"

"I'm afraid I couldn't save the arm. Or the eye, for that matter, though I _did_ try." The man answered, her head snapping around to meet his impassive, resigned gaze with a wide eye. Raisin his eyebrows he asked, quietly, "Are you going to have a panic attack? If you are, I can put you back under for a while."

"Y-You couldn't save my... " She blinked, chest heaving and eye blinking rapidly. Why couldn't she see out of her other eye? How hadn't she _noticed_ that? "Watts, t-this isn't funny. What do you mean-?"

"Panic attack it is, then, I suppose." The man sighed, drawing another long, thin needle from somewhere and snapping a hand out to grip her wrist. This time she struggled but he only sighed and _squeezed_, sending bolts of pain up her arm from her broken wrist and making her freeze long enough to jab the needle into her arm.

"We'll talk again when you're calmer." The man assured her as her breathing slowed and her head became heavy. Soon, she was slipping into unconsciousness, only a single thought persisting until she faded away entirely.

'_Jaune Arc…'_

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

He left the mangled amputee in her bed, once he was certain she would _remain_ unconscious, and moved across the squat little motel room to sit on his own ratty bed. Setting his case on the floor he paused for the shortest moment to take a deep, steadying breath. Then, his hands trembling ever so slightly, he unclasped the top and pushed it away, to give it the space it needed.

Or rather, the space he wanted.

The Seer inside emerged like the nightmare it very much was. Its long, barbed tendrils shot up out of the darkness and then down, embedding in the old, ratty floor for the purchase it wanted to tug itself free of the bag. Once it was free it floated freely, tendrils relaxing under it as it stretched and shuddered in the cool air of the motel room.

"Mistress?" He was fairly certain she'd been listening the whole time but, with the Grimm in the room, it bore making sure.

"Doctor." She greeted, sounding simultaneously amused and agitated. Languidly, the creature drifted away from him, hovering low over the still woman in her bed. Then the ancient woman sighed, though it sounded somehow less sad and more… _Disappointed_. "Poor, pathetic little thing. You couldn't save the arm?"

"No, Mistress, I could not." He answered, thankful for the chance to talk science rather than… Well, rather than about his mistress' foiled plans. "The shoulder bone was mostly, well, _melted_ where the joint connected. It would have been surgery beyond what I was able to do to save it."

"You lacked the skills?"

"The _supplies_." He corrected, bristling instinctively and then balking when he remembered who he was talking to. Coughing to clear his throat he explained, "I would have needed an operating room, and specialised tools, to repair the melted bone and ligaments. I lacked the proper equipment to attempt such a venture without risking killing the girl."

"Truly?"

"The damage was _extensive_, my Queen." He nodded, standing and joining her Seer, looking down on the bandage wrapped young woman. In truth, he doubted he'd have even been _able_ to save the arm with the condition it had been in. "Melted bone, blackened skin with a texture approaching burnt _pork_ and _nonexistent_ ligaments… I'm not quite sure what hit her, but I would very much like to avoid ever encountering it myself."

"A wise thing to hope for, I imagine." She murmured, asking after a moment, "She said that the person that did this was Nikos' partner, yes?"

"Indeed." He nodded, bringing up his Scroll and looking at the file, "A blonde, she said. The blonde on her team is one Jaune Arc. And, apparently, he uses two weapons interchangeably. A more classic glaive of sorts and a twin bladed 'energy saber' of sorts. _That_," he noted as he closed the Scroll, "could very easily have done the damage I'm seeing."

"I remember her name, but not his." Salem said, "Cinder included her in a list of women that Ozpin might seek to give the Maidenhood to."

"She was, yes." Along with half a dozen other young women skilled and 'honorable' enough for Cinder to worry about them. "I don't believe that she was the one chosen to take on the power, though."

"No?" The Seer echoed, turning slightly to regard him and ignoring the fallen woman. "How can you be so sure, Doctor? Nikos' partner did this to Cinder, after all. Isn't that evidence she took the power?"

"Evidence, yes." He nodded, returning to his bed and shaking his head, "Proof, no."

"Explain." The Seer ordered, floating closer to him in an old, if not ineffective, show of her power over him.

"Miss Nikos lost her legs in the fighting." He said simply, easing back on the ratty bed if only for more space between him and the Grimm. It followed, though, hovering over him threateningly for whatever purpose the Grimm Queen ordered it to. "But she lost them to the White Fang leader Cinder… _Persuaded_ into her service."

"Not to Cinder herself, then." Salem answered, the Grimm pulling away from him to hover in the open space in front of the cheap little television. "If Nikos had the power, or was trying to get it, then Cinder would have dealt with her herself. Not sent some peon to fight her."

"Indeed." Watts nodded, taking the empty space to breathe and collect himself. "Further, she isn't being protected terribly in the hospital."

"The hospital?"

"She lost her legs in the fighting." He answered simply, "Taurus' Semblance is rather powerful, as it turns out. He took them."

"I see." She answered, seemingly making the easy connection that Adam Taurus was the White Fang leader he'd mentioned. "And how _is_ Mister Taurus?"

"Under arrest and very, _very _heavy guard." He'd considered rescuing him already, if only to cause some confusion and chaos. The cost and risk had been prohibitive, but if she ordered it… Well, best to try a change of subject, he supposed, "Miss Nikos, and those others involved in the altercation, are under the same level of guard. The General's personal part time Hunters, full time _thugs_, the Ace Ops, have taken over protection duty of _one_ of them, though."

"A woman?"

"Indeed." He nodded, "Blake Belladonna, who is-"

"The Maiden. She interrupted tiredly, sighing. "Yes, it's fairly obvious."

"Yes, well…" That hadn't been what he was going to say, but his queen sounded quite _finished_ with the conversation at hand, so he wouldn't press his luck. Instead he asked, quietly, "Shall I have her dealt with? It would be a challenge but if it would be-"

"No." Salem answered quickly, "That won't be necessary, right now. Without Cinder on hand with the parasite to ensure she gets the full Maidenhood there's little point."

"I see." He said, trying to hide the relief in his voice. Going up against the Ace Ops did _not_ sound like something he wanted to have to do with things as they were… "Your orders then, my Queen?"

"Withdraw." She said simply, "Bring Cinder home, Doctor. We will tend to her wounds and then decide on our next course of action. I know you have your own work in Vale," work that would, apparently, need to be abandoned, "but the Maidens and the Relics take priority. For what it's worth, I'm sorry to have wasted your time sending you there only to recall you so abruptly."

"No apologies needed, my lady." She _never_ apologized to anyone but him, he knew, and that brought a smile to his face. "I'm just glad that I was lucky enough to be here when young Cinder needed me."

"Indeed." The Grimm answered, moving towards his back and curling its tendrils in. As it settled in she sighed, adding a final, "I shall see you when you get here, Watts. Do _not_ return without young Cinder in tow, or you will pay for the lost investment _personally_."

"Y-Yes, my Queen." Somehow, he didn't think she meant in _Lien_. "I will bring her to you quickly."

She didn't answer, settling the Grimm into place and then putting the creature to sleep. After a moment, he allowed himself to collapse back onto his own ratty bed. Then, he heaved a great sigh.

"I'll make you pay for putting me in this situation, Ironwood…" He swore quietly for very distinctly _not_ the first time, "If you'd just chosen me then everything would be fine."

Of course, he hadn't, and nothing could change that now. But at least he had a goal to focus on, for a while. Even if it _did_ mean having to put up with the entitled, self-important little tart that was Cinder, it would be a decent enough distraction. At least, it would be in a few days, when Atlas calmed down the tiniest bit.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

Great Vale was an old hospital, even Ruby could tell that much just from looking at it. Old hallways with old style brick walls made up most of its wings and rooms, and the windows were barred. An old security measure from the Great War, she remembered Doctor Oobleck telling them, since hospitals would be filled by wounded and their families if the Grimm attacked the city.

Or if _something else_ did, though Oobleck hadn't specified what that might be in his lesson.

Now, after everything that had happened the day before, Ruby had a feeling she knew what that 'something else' had been...

"You good, kid?" The halls of the old hospital were surprisingly empty, ater everything had happened, but her uncle still didn't want her off on her own. So, sharp eyes scanning every nurse, doctor and passerby they, well, _passed by_, he joined her. He spared her a worried little look, though, adding, "You look like someone just stole your cookies, then banned 'em in the whole Kingdom."

"They wouldn't do that." She blinked, turning a wide-eyed look on him and asking, hands held up 'kung fu style' like Heise Chan from Mistral Rush, "W-Would they?! I'll fight 'em off if they try!"

"Ruby, I'm bein' serious right now." Her uncle growled warningly, Ruby blinking in surprise at his flat, unamused and completely unconvinced stare. "Put your hands down, and stop tryin' to brush me off, kiddo."

"I'm not-"

"I helped raise you, kid, don't pretend you can lie to me." He cut her off, turning his sharp gaze back on the people they were passing by as they rounded a corner.

Ahead of them were the heavy, armored doors that led into the secure wing, where prisoners were normally kept when they were sick or hurt. And now, where her friends were staying. Where they _had_ to stay, right now, under heavy guard provided by Atlas' finest and a selection of Hunters Miss Goodwitch had sent to help. Ironwood hadn't spared any effort or expense protecting even just the first door, seven of his soldiers standing outside it in a disciplined, quiet formation. Three Atlesian Navy to either side, in their shining silver armor and blue underlining, with a Specialist leaning against the door itself between them.

Seeing them, the dark skinned man smiled and raised a hand, waving a hello and pushing off the door while his tail swished along behind him.

"Before we go in," Qrow grunted, laying a hand on her shoulder and pushing her to the side, out of the 'path' in the center of the hall and closer to the wall, "you think it might be a good idea to let me know what's up?"

"I… I-I don't..." She gave him a look and froze, her emotions suddenly flaring up inside of her, harder than she had expected and more than she could control. Anger, pain, fear and above it all, _confusion_, they all welled up like a tidal wave slamming into a fracturing dam. Yanking her shoulder back, out of his grip, she snapped, "Isn't it obvious 'what's up' Uncle Qrow?"

"I-"

"Beacon is half destroyed, it's been closed for days! All those things Ozpin told us about-" Qrow's eyes widened warningly, his head snapping to either side to see if anyone was listening, and she hissed, "See? You aren't listening, too worried about his frickin' _secrets_! My home is gone, my friends are _hospitalized_, one of them might never be able to fight again, b-because of these secrets."

"Ruby, the Battle of Beacon wasn't Ozpin's fault…."

"I _know_ that, Uncle!" She hissed, pressing her face into the palms of her hands and sucking in a deep, deep breath, fighting back the tears that threatened to break there. Letting out the shaky breath she gave him a look, her smile forced and eyes _burning_, "But it's still because of his secrets. Yang can barely move, Pyrrha lost her legs, so many people _died_… J-Jaune killed people, and laughed while he was doing it."

"Yeah…" Qrow sighed, giving her a soft look and, after a moment, reaching for her again. This time she let him touch her, let him pull her in for a hug she returned. Running rough, calloused hands through her hair, Qrow murmured, "S'war, kid. People get hurt, _bad_ sometimes, and people die. Some people snap, like your friend, too. S'just… S'war."

"I hate war." She murmured into his chest, squeezing her arms around him. He smelled like oil, and grease, and alcohol and, now that she knew what it smelled like, blood. But he was there, and the smell proved it. "I was so scared, watching them fight, Uncle… It was incredible, what Jaune could do- Can Maidens do that too?"

"They can." He answered, voice rumbling through his chest, "Oz can too, when he needs to. There's… A lot out there."

"I want to know everything you do." She said quietly, pulling away and giving her uncle a hard look when he stammered out the start of a denial. "This is a war, right?" He nodded, "Then I deserve to know everything I can, if I'm going to fight it."

"Ruby you don't have to fight-"

"I'm a Huntress, Uncle Qrow." She said, pushing off him and standing straighter, more than aware of the Specialist's confused gaze from down the hall.

"You're a kid." Her uncle argued, "A student, not a Huntress. Not yet."

"Did that matter to Cinder?" She asked quietly, the man's jaw clicking shut at the simple question. In his silence she pressed on, "Pyrrha lost her legs even though she was only a student. Yang's back is _covered_ in burns and she can barely walk. Cinder would have killed me to get to Blake, and we're both students. And Blake won't even-"

"Okay, okay, I get it." The man sighed, shoving one hand in a pocket and reaching for his flask with the other. The hospital had forbidden it, though, so his hands came up empty and he scowled. Instead, he shoved the _other_ hand in a pocket and sighed, quietly, "Fine, kid. I'll tell you everything I know once we're outta here. I know a quiet little diner where we can talk it all out. What Oz told you n' what he didn't both."

"Thank you." She was terrified of what he'd have to say, but… Well, the truth hurt, sometimes.

And she _needed_ to know to do this right.

"Sure." The man sighed, bobbing his head towards the door, "Let's go see your team now, then, hm?"

"Yeah…" She smiled again, and this time it was a bit more natural feeling to her. "Yeah, let's go see 'em."

"Hey." Specialist Amin said as they approached, waving a hand to make the other six guards relax while his other took their identification. While he looked them over, meticulous as always even through she'd come by him half a dozen times by now, he asked, "You good, kid?"

"Not really, goin' to see my friends in the hospital and all, but…" She smiled, "I'll be okay."

"I hope so. You helped protect the General after all. Atlas owes you a big thank you for that." Handing back their identification he sighed and grimaced, uncomfortable but resigned to the normal routine. "We're, uh, still restricting visitation to teams and family only, though. For, uh, security reasons."

"Yeah, I figured." She hated it, too, even if it had been explained already and made plenty of sense. "Are there, um, any changes?"

"Miss Xiao Long is moving around a bit more easily, and Miss Schnee has started physical therapy for her broken arm. Aura is great for healing breaks like hers, but…" He shrugged, "You still have to work on getting your strength back."

"Yeah." She nodded, "That can be the hardest part, right?"

"It can, yeah." He nodded, pushing the door aside and smiling for them, welcoming them through, "The Schnee and your sister are in Miss Xiao Long's room right now, doing their therapy with Nurse Freya."

They thanked him quietly, as always, and brushed by, into the quiet of the maximum security wing.

Here, the halls were empty of the 'creature comforts' in the rest of the hospital's halls and wings. Chairs, cabinets, paintings and even the ceiling mounted televisions were all absent, here. The security cameras were even different, black little half-circles every few feet encased in wire fencing with little signs hanging beside them warning that they were electrified. It didn't even have its nurse's station in its wing. Instead it'd been built back, through the armored doors and up the hall, tucked into a little office room.

Not for the first time it struck her that this was probably what a prison felt like...

The guards, one Human and one droid at each reinforced door they passed, didn't pay them any mind as they passed. Most of the rooms were empty, she knew, or used as temporary quarters for the guards so that they were kept safe and monitored. But by guarding each door, General Ironwood had told her, they made it harder for anyone attacking them to know where _exactly_ her friends were staying.

Which meant they were safer.

"Hey Yang! Weiss!" Ruby cheered brightly as the guard by her door let them both in, paying them little nods of respect as they brushed by. "How are you?"

"Doin' good." The blonde grunted shortly, sat on a mat on the floor and slowly, gingerly doing sit-ups while the nurse watched over her. Like Weiss, she was dressed in loose fitting trousers and a loose fitting shirt, both grey and marked out with the hospital's logo. Grunting and sweating for the effort of the no doubt painful exercise, she growled, "Back hurts but s'not new."

"Great!" She said, taking a spot on her sister's freshly made bed since she wasn't using it. Turning to her partner in the chair beside it she asked, "How's your arm?"

"It's sore and stiff." The woman complained, grimacing as she raised and lowered a little weight. "But getting better."

"Glad to hear it." Ruby smiled, turning a look on the old, frail looking woman that was their nurse. The old woman, who'd told her she'd been born _during_ the Great War when she asked about her name, smiled, sitting in her own chair and taking notes, and Ruby asked, "How, um, are they doing?"

"Very well." The woman nodded, glancing down at her notes and smiling even more widely. "I would guess that Miss Xiao Long will be back to her prime, or very near to it, by the end of next week. Two weeks to recover is perfectly normal for moderate dermal electrical damage with Aura treatments, so she's just fine, by my metrics."

"Yeah I am." She laughed, groaning as she sat up once more and then began slowly lowering herself down, "Takes more 'n super taser lasers to slow me down."

"Don't get cocky, kid." Qrow warned, resting against the wall by the door. Still, when Yang and Ruby stuck their tongues out at him, he smiled.

"Miss Schnee's break was clean and healed up inside a few days, thanks to Aura treatments." The ancient nurse went on, completely unperturbed by what was by now the norm for these visits. "Another week and change, which is well within the norm as well, and I believe she will be back in fighting form as well. I'm sure your father will be pleased, the bill for treatment will be notably low."

"As if he would care…" The mention of her father seemed to sour Weiss' mood a bit, her lifting slowing for a moment before she sighed. "I'd have rather used Beacon's insurance, really, than rely on his money."

"Yeah…" She only hadn't because she knew that there were a lot of people hurt by the attacks, so public insurance was straining.

"I mean, at least you didn't have to fill out all that paperwork." Yang grumbled morosely, finally rolling over and standing with a grimace. Catching Ruby's worried gaze the blonde rolled her eyes and explained, not for the first time, "Moving around hurts a bit, sometimes. If I have to twist or anything."

"That reminds me," the nurse smiled, "your next exercise set will incorporate gentle stretching."

"Oh fuck me…"

"Sweetheart you're about twenty years too young for me." Yang actually choked on the water she'd been drinking, laughing quietly amid hisses of pain while the doctor scratched out more notes. "I see your back still hurts whenever you laugh, too. Breathing exercises will be a must as well then, to get you back to full strength faster."

"That was-" She grunted, hand on her side and then relaxed, letting out a weak breath. "That was a _test_?"

"Mhm." The woman nodded, smiling gently and raising a single thin, grey eyebrow, "That's my job, after all. Did you forget? Is the uniform not enough for you? I can send for an 'I work here, Yang Xiao Long' sign if you need me to."

Yang snorted, shaking her head and holding up her inner and middle fingers at the woman, smiling all the while, "You know you love me, Grannie."

"Sure, sure. I suppose that explains why I am working so hard to get you on the mend. And _out_ of my patients list." Yang laughed and the woman joined her, turning a silent, questioning look on Ruby.

It was a soft, kind of sad look, and one Ruby knew pretty well by now. The nurse was their regular one and very attuned to them by now. And as much as she hated to ruin the mood, she needed to know… "How… How is Blake doing?"

"She's still not woken up." Nurse freya answered quietly, smiling weakly and rushing to add, "However, tests using stimuli are showing improvements. Both in simple physical reactions, tapping joints and the like, and in neurological scans. Her brain is reacting more and more to whatever we stimulate her with."

"So she's… Getting better?"

"Comas are always fickle, so while I can't _definitively_ state anything…" The doctor smiled, "I would say that she is. Or, well, I'd bet my money on it at least. I've been told a _highly_ esteemed neurological specialist from Atlas will be flying in tomorrow, with some things for your other friend as well, to see to her."

"Okay." A specialist _and_ she was seeing improvement? Ruby took a deep breath and let herself feel hopeful, finally, that Blake was really, _really_ going to be okay. "Thanks, Nurse Freya. I'm… I'm really happy to hear she's doing better."

"I can understand that." Nurse Freya smiled, turning a smile on Yang sitting beside Ruby on the bed. "Oh, did I forget to mention, your stretching exercises start today. Right now." Yang whined and the nurse clapped her hands, smiling, "Hop to it, chop chop."

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

It took several hours before the Battle of Beacon, which was now _officially_ being called that by Atlas and Vale both, had finally come to an end. Long enough that Pyrrha's legs weren't safely reattachable, at least without some undefined, nebulous 'loss of functionality' that no one had been able to properly explain to them. But according to the doctors, she'd almost certainly lose _some_ of the functionality, even if everything went well and they had luck on their side.

_Neither_ of them had been feeling particularly lucky after the battle, though.

So now, instead of the long, lean muscle of a Huntress, her legs ended mid-thigh. To get ready for her coming prosthetics, which he'd been told were already well on their way, she'd already been through surgery to 'even up' her legs and install the cybernetic connectors. They were both simple little silver half-circles, set into a bracketed frame that had been bolted onto an internal frame and then her thigh bone.

Which sounded _incredibly painful_ to him, but she assured him it didn't hurt at all. According to her, they even dealt with her phantom pain somehow, taking in her brain's impulses to move her legs and check on their condition and responding properly. He didn't understand it, really, but-

"Jaune." The woman murmured, sitting up in her bed and giving him a flat, disapproving stare. He blinked and grimaced, and she sighed, "You're staring at them, Jaune. Again. Even though you promised you wouldn't."

"S-Sorry, Pyr." He sighed, masking his embarrassment in taking a drink from his bottle of green tea. It was a bit bitter but, according to Ren, would help him relax.

He didn't think it was working, though, he still felt as tense as ever.

"Jaune, you know this isn't your-"

"I know it isn't, Pyr." She'd made certain he knew her losing her legs was no fault of his, or hers. Semblances were random, and often _ludicrously_ powerful, and she'd been taken off guard by her enemy's. "I was just-"

"Brooding?"

"_Thinking_." He corrected her, chuckling at the sarcastic little roll of her eyes. "I'm a Revanite, Pyr. I don't _brood_ over anything."

"No, no, you don't brood." She demurred, taking a strand of her loose, untied and wild hair and playing with it with a hand. "No, you just stare very intently at my, er, my stumps. While thinking. And glaring."

"Okay, _maybe_ I was brooding a _little bit_." The admission drew a laugh from her, bright and happy, which made him relax a bit. She was still pale, a little, from what had happened. And she couldn't move around very easily. But that she could still laugh bolstered his spirits, some.

Or, well, _a lot_.

"What were you thinking about, then?" She finally asked, smiling when he gave her a confused look, "When you were _totally not_ brooding, I mean. What was on your mind?"

"Well…" He sighed, shaking his head and buying a moment to gather his thoughts with another drink of his bitter tea. It didn't help, much, and the maneuver must have been obvious since Pyrrha's brows furrowed at it. She really was too good at reading him, sometimes… "Cinder, the archer, I mean, she's still out there."

"Jaune…"

"You're still in danger, Pyrrha." She grimaced and shifted in her seat to face him a bit more, to argue with him, and he asked, "When your new legs get here, are you going to stay out of the fight?"

"No." She answered quietly, "We've been over that already, though. With the prosthetics, I'll be back in top form, sooner or later. And so long as I can fight, my duty remains."

"Then we need to think about Cinder, the archer." He nodded, the woman grimacing at his words. The logic itself was simple, really, and she either agreed with it or didn't see a way to argue against it. "I beat her, but she escaped. I killed her team, but-"

"I wish you wouldn't talk about that so flippantly…" Pyrrha sighed, giving him an altogether _sad_ look. "You took lives, Jaune. Two of them, in fact, and, Force, you _wanted_ to take a third. I had to _argue with you_ to stop you."

"He took your legs, Pyr." He argued simply, holding up a hand for peace when she made to respond. "It was a battle, Pyrrha, and I'm a Force Warrior. My beliefs on life and death, and killing, are just… Different to yours. In Revanism, and most Force teachings, our destinies are defined by the will of the Force. Dying in a fight, then, would be that destiny."

"I suppose…" She blinked, "Wouldn't my fate be something to accept too, then?"

"The Force willed me to be warned of your possible future." He argued simply, shrugging, "If it wanted to warn me, it doesn't necessarily will you to die that way. Why warn someone of something that you don't want them to _prevent_, after all?"

"A fair point, I suppose." She sighed, both in relief and something else he couldn't quite discern. He considered reaching out to 'probe' her wake in the Force, for a moment, before letting it go. "What do you propose we do, then?"

"Find her and either somehow remove her as a threat, or kill her." He answered simply, shrugging and taking another sip of his tea. "I doubt it'll be that simple, of course, but ultimately? Dealing with her will be better for everyone."

"I'd _prefer_ we arrest her, not kill her…"

"If we can manage it, we will." Though he sincerely doubted that would ever, _ever_ be possible. She didn't strike him as the surrendering type and, if push came to shove, he wouldn't lose any sleep over resolving the problem permanently. "For now, though, we need a plan. To keep getting stronger, and deal with the threats coming for us."

"Indeed." Pyrrha nodded, "The Archive, then?"

"That's what I was thinking, yeah. At least as a starting point." He nodded, grimacing and then adding, quietly, "I… Don't think being at Beacon will be very conducive to our goals, though."

"No?"

"No." He affirmed, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "I think… It's hard to phrase what I think we should do, really, but… I think that we need to forge our own path, outside the Academies' lines. Between the Temple I was trained in, and the Archive, and even the Maidens and how their power and Ozpin's powers felt to me, in the Battle, there's… _Something_ bigger than us going on here, on Remnant."

"And you aim to find out what." Pyrrha concluded, "Correct?"

"Yeah." He nodded, giving her a small smile and offering, gently, "You don't have to come with me, if you don't want to, Pyr. I wouldn't-"

"Jaune Arc if you imply for _one moment_ that I will let you go on some life changing, world rocking journey without me, then once my prosthetics arrive I _will_ break one over your head." The woman threatened lightly, smiling when he turned to give her a look. Reaching out for one of his hands, and squeezing it gently when he gave it to her, "If you feel you need to do this, then by whatever gods that be, I will be there with you."

"Yeah?" She nodded and he smiled, a strange sort of warmth blooming in his chest. Scooting his chair closer so he could hold her hand more comfortably, he sighed, "Well, I suppose this means that Nora and Ren will… Probably want to come, too."

"Quite likely." She nodded, "For now, let's just… Enjoy what time we have."

"Yeah." He nodded, taking another sip of his tea and sighing contently. "Let's do that. At least until Ren and Nora get back and-"

"Heeere's Nora!" The woman suddenly shouted, throwing open the door with an exasperated Ren _and_ an exasperated guard standing behind her.

"She spent ten minutes waiting for a moment…" The guard sighed, pointing a long, gloved finger at Jaune and adding, tiredly, "She's your problem now, Sir. Please, at least _try_ to keep her contained."

Jaune could only laugh, as the man pulled the door shut behind the duo.

_No one_ kept Nora contained, after all.

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

**Is this… The rare happy ending? At least to the first 'book' of a series?**

**My god, I think it might be.**

**Hope you all enjoy and look forward to the next 'book' in this series. Might continue off the same story, might make a new one. We shall see, so make sure you are Following me so you can get the update either way~!**

_**XxX-XxX-XxX**_

_**Scrub Lord :**_

**Glad you liked it! As for Emerald getting to him, rationalize as you like. Personally, I think it was partially him being distracted as you said, and partially him assuming she was dead.**

_**Lord Owl :**_

**She lost a **_**lot**_ **of assets, in fact.**

**Glad you enjoyed!**

_**Zenith Tempest :**_

**So. *sips tea* Still think I lost my inspiration for this~? XD**

_**Hirshja :**_

**Yeah, I wanted to strike a good balance of damage to power growth, bubt not call attention to it. That's part of why the fight scene was from Cinder's POV actually. Less fluff with the Force to describe and give away the subtleties.**

_**Insane Wombat :**_

**Their Hunters. Pyrrha and co are in the right, sticking by their duty and trying to do what's right. Sometimes, it ain't fun for you when you do what's right. But as shown throughout, these people aren't the types to abandon their duties to save their own hides.**

_**John Killa 100 :**_

**Expect it soonish! Dunno if I will make a separate story for it or post a continuation here, but it will be here soonish. I'm having too much fun not to!**

_**Joeyginise :**_

**As you can see, she ded.**

_**Wright Knight**_ _**:**_

**Reattaching limbs is tricky and hard for anything bigger than a finger. For two entire **_**legs**_**, the loss of functionality that would certainly occur would be too much to risk. Even just a moderate permanent loss in utility could be damning to her career, which makes it a less than desirable option.**

**Also, robot limbs are kewl.**


End file.
